JOHN ROSS AND THE CHEROKEE 
INDIANS 



TO 

THE MEMORY OF 

MY MOTHER 



JOHN ROSS AND THE 
CHEROKEE INDIANS 



RACHEL CAROLINE EATON, A.M. 



GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY 

MENASHA, WISCONSIN 

1914 



Copyright, 1914, By 

George Banta Publishing Company 

Publishers 



OCT 23 1914 

»CI.A3880aO 



FOREWORD 

There is no more tragic history than that of the Cherokee 
Indians. The steady growth and development of this group 
of aborigines living among the mountains of Georgia, North 
C;irolina and Tennessee is interesting as showing their capacity 
for building a culture of their own. Landowners, masters of 
negro slaves, inventors of an alphabet of their own and or- 
ganizers of an adequate civil government, they offered from the 
close of the American revolution to the advent of Andrew Jack- 
son, a unique example of Indian life. And what is more impor- 
tant to tlie student of the politics of the United States the 
Cherokecs proposed to form a state of their own after the 
manner of the other states of the Union. This bold proposition 
raised many problems : What would the people of Georgia do if 
the United States refused to guarantee the integrity of her 
boundaries.'' What would the Federal Supreme Court answ^er 
to a petition under the treaties with the national government for 
local authority and self-government inside the bounds of one 
of the original thirteen states.'' And if the Georgians and the 
Indians came to blows what would be the effect of Federal in- 
tervention .'' 

Thus we see that the history of the Cherokee Nation offers 
a good opportunity to any student who has sympathy for the 
natives and a proper sense for the realities of the American 
national development. Mrs. Eaton in her Life of John Ross, 
about whose career centers most of the story of the Cherokee 
exploitation and sorrowful removal to Oklahoma, has touched 
upon or answered most of these questions, and her story is 
presented clearly and in most interesting manner. The book 
ought to find many readers. 

William E. Dodd 
University of Chicago, 

September 30, 1914. 



PREFACE 

In the written records of America the place accorded the 
aboriginal peoples who once ruled over the whole western world 
can scarcely be considered a reputable one. The very name 
Indian is a misnomer due to a geographical error of the fifteenth 
century which enlightened knowledge has failed to correct. 

On the pages of United States history the Indian usually 
appears seated at the council fire grimly plotting the destruc- 
tion of his enemy, or formidable in feathers and war paint, toma- 
hawk in hand, he lurks darkly on the outskirts of civilization 
awaiting an opportunity to fall upon defenseless pioneers 
whose scalp he can display as proof of his prowess. That he 
has ever cherished any but sinister sentiments for those who 
dispossessed him of his birthright or that he has exercised any 
but destructive influences upon the history of the country has 
been too often ignored. It is even denied that he is capable 
of Anglo-Saxon civilization. 

Nevertheless it true that some of the most eminent physi- 
cians, eloquent preachers, prominent authors, astute financiers 
and constructive statesmen in America today are of this same 
aboriginal stock. 

The aim of this historical sketch is to trace the evolution 
from barbarism to civilization of one of the most progressive 
tribes of North American Indians; to give a sympathetic in- 
terpretation of their struggle to maintain their tribal identity 
and ancestral domains against the overwhelming tide of eco- 
nomic development advancing from the Atlantic seaboard west- 
ward; to relate the story of their forcible removal to the west- 
ern wilderness where in the midst of hard-won prosperity they 
were plunged into the horrors of the Civil War. John Ross 
by reason of his chieftainship of nearly four decades, was the 
most interesting of several able men of this tribe. 

In the preparation of the book abundant use has been made 
of the manuscripts placed at my disposal by the Sequoyah 
Historical Society of Claremore, Oklahoma, of the Payne Man- 
uscripts in the Ayer Collection of the Newberry Library, Chi- 



cago, and of the manuscript letters and records in the United 
States Indian Office. 

I am also deeply indebted to Mr. Leon C. Ross and Mr. 
Robert L. Ross of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, for the free use of 
their rare collections of letters and documents : to Mr. A. S. 
Wyley for information on Cherokee education, and to Mr. An- 
drew Cunningham and Colonel J. C. Harris for access to the 
Cherokee National records at Tahlequah. 

To Professor Edward M. Sheppard of Drury College, who 
first encouraged me to take up the study of Indian history, I 
owe sincere thanks. To Professor William E. Dodd, of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago without whose helpful suggestions and unfail- 
ing interest the book would never have been completed, I desire 
to express my special gratitude. For a critical reading of the 
manuscript I am under obligations to Professors A. C. Mc- 
Laughlin, Frances W. Shepardson and Frederick Starr of the 
University of Chicago. 

In addition to those mentioned there are others whom I wish 
to thank for assistance rendered and encouragement given. 
Among these is Mrs. Frances J. Moseby, my late colleague at 
the Industrial Institute and College of Mississippi. 

Lastly, if the background of the story adds anything to 
the merit of the book the credit is due to Mrs. Lucy Ward Wil- 
liams, one of the last of the fireside historians of her race, whose 
vital interest in her people constrained her to repeat their story 
in season and out of season until it was rooted and grounded in 
my memory from earliest childhood. 



CONTENTS 

Page 
Chapter I 
The Youth and Early Training of John Ross 1 

Chapter II 
Early History of the Cherokees 7 

Chapter III 
John Ross Beginning his Public Career 23 

Chapter IV 
Georgia's Growing Demand for Indian Land 39 

Chapter V 
Georgia's Hostility to the Cherokees 47 

Chapter VI 
The Cherokees Adopt a Constitution 52 

Chapter ^TI 
The Removal Bill 60 

Chapter VIII 
Factional Strife 71 

Chapter IX 
The National Executive Refuses Protection to the Indians 77 

Chapter X 
The Annuity Plot 83 

Chapter XI 
The New Echota Treaty 92 

Chapter XII 
Opposition to the Treaty 100 

Chapter XIII 
Compulsory Removal 110 



Chapter XIV 
The Trail of Tears 121 

Chapter XV 
A Triple Tragedy 126 

Chapter XVI 
Political Readjustment 136 

Chapter XVII 
Political Readjustment, Concluded 148 

Chapter XVIII 
Two Decades of Economic Development 161 

Chapter XIX 
The Civil War 174 

Chapter XX 
The Civil War, Concluded 188 

Chapter XXI 
Reconstruction of the Cherokee Nation 198 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 210 



CHAPTER I 

Thk Youth axd Early Training of John Ross 

Few men of aboriginal American stock have figured more 
conspicuously in United States history or have been tlie subject 
of more diverse opinions than has John Ross, who, for nearly 
forty years, was chief of the Cherokee Indians. 

Beginning his political career when Georgia was commen- 
cing to assert her extreme views in regard to the Indian ques- 
tion, he was considered by Georgia statesman and border politi- 
cian as "a silent and a sordid man,"^ dangerous and obnoxious, 
to be feared for his influence over the Indians and hated because 
he was absolutely incorruptible. To the majority of the Chero- 
kees he was a Solomon in the council and a David in the defense 
of their rights. (Between these extreme opinions were those of 
such men as Clay, Webster, and jMar shall, who considered him 
a cultured and an honest gentleman, the peer of many who sat 
in the legislative halls at Washington^ Even his bitterest ene- 
mies conceded that he possessed ability of no mean order 

His qualities of leadership early forced him into the fore- 
front of the conflict which, for almost two decades, waged so 
bitterly in Georgia and on the borders of Tennesssee and 
Alabama, and which finally terminated in the expatriation of 
the Cherokees. In the new nation which they organized beyond 
the Mississippi he was again at the head of government, which 
position he held until his death, just after the close of the Civil 
War. 

Tracing the lineage of John Ross, we find that he inherited 
his white blood from sturdy and eminently reputable Scotch 
stock, while his Indian ancestors were prominent clansmen of 
the Cherokees, this most progressive tribe of North American 
aborigines. His maternal grandfather was John McDonald, 
born at Inverness, Scotland, in Jr^^?-. As a youth of nineteen 
McDonald visited London, and there falling in with another 
young Scotchman who had just engaged passage to America, 
he decided to go with him and try his fortunes in the New 

"^Cong. Doc. 315, No. 1:20, p. 573. 



2 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

World. They landed in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1766. 
McDonald soon made his way to Savannah where he secured a 
clerkship in a mercantile establishment which carried on a 
thriving trade among the Indians. His business judgment and 
steady habits inspired his employers with such confidence that 
they sent him to Fort Loudon on the Tennessee near Kingston,^ 
to open up and superintend trade among the Cherokees. It 
was not long until he set up in business for himself and married 
Ann Shorey, a half-blood Cherokee woman. 

In the early days of colonization, when a white man married 
an Indian woman, it was the custom among the Indians to adopt 
him into the tribe if he was deemed worthy of such honor; 
thereafter he cast his lot among his adopted people, adapting 
himself to their customs and becoming identified with their 
interests. So John McDonald, to all intents and purposes, be- 
came a Cherokee of the Cherokees, and when a band of them 
encroached upon by the white settlers and out of sympathy 
with the garrison at Fort Loudon, left their homes and pushed 
out into the wilderness of northwest Georgia, he went with them 
and settled near Lookout Mountain. It was here he met, under 
most romantic circumstances, Daniel Ross, another Scotchman, 
who was destined to play a larger part than his countryman in 
the affairs of the Cherokees. 

Daniel Ross was originally from Sutherlandshire, Scotland. 
In his childhood he had gone with his parents to America in the 
latter half of the eighteenth century. They settled in Balti- 
more where Daniel was left an orphan at the close of the 
American Revolution. Like many another young man of the 
time the West so appealed to him that he accompanied a Mr. 
Mayberry to Hawkins County, Tennessee, where they built a 
flatboat, filled it with merchandise and started down the Ten- 
nessee to the Chickasaw country to trade in furs. Their route 
led them through the most hostile part of the land of the Chero- 
kees, and when the party reached the town of Sitico on the 
Tennessee River near Lookout Mountain, their appearance 
caused considerable excitement among the natives. The whole 
community turned out at once eager to know the design of the 

" Tennessee. 



The Youth and Early Training of John Ross 3 

strangers. Upon investigation it was found that, in addition 
to valuable merchandise, the party had on board a hostile chief 
named Mountain Leader. Bloody Fellow, a Cherokee chief, 
counseled the massacre of the whole party and a confiscation of 
their property. A division of opinion having arisen concerning 
this course, John McDonald, who lived fifteen miles away, was 
summoned to give his advice on the subject. Arriving on the 
scene of excitement he investigated the nature of the party and, 
finding its object a legitimate one, urged that no harm be done 
the strangers. He also warned Bloody Fellow that any injury 
done the white men would be considered a personal affront to 
him. Not only were the traders released, but they were invited 
to remain and establish a trading post in that country, and the 
invitation was accepted." 

Daniel Ross soon afterwards married Mollie McDonald, 
daughter of John McDonald, a woman said to possess rare 
beauty of face and charm of manner. During the next twenty 
years he travelled in different parts of the Cherokee Nation, 
establishing trading posts and conducting successful business 
enterprises. He was a man of irreproachable character and 
sturdy honesty, with the same code of ethics for red man and 
white, and gradually he came to wield a considerable influence 
among the Cherokees. 

Of the nine children of Mollie and Daniel Ross, John, the 
third son, was born at Tahnoovayah, on the Coosa River, in 
1790. He grew up for the most part like any other little 
Indian boy of the time in the free, outdoor life of the tribe in the 
beautiful hills and valleys of the Cherokee Nation, enjoying 
all the sports and undergoing all the hardships of Indian life. 

When he was about seven years of age he accompanied his 
parents to Hillstown to attend the Green Corn Festival, an 
annual thanksgiving feast held in the spring when Indian corn 
was in the roasting ear. For several days the clans gathered 
from the hills and valleys of all parts of the nation and gave 
themselves up to feasting and ball playing, religious ceremonies, 
and social intercourse. John Ross's mother on this occasion 

^McKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes of North America, Vol. Ill, 
p. 293. 



4 John Ross and the Cherokee In,dians 

had dressed him in his first suit of nankeen brand new made 
after the white man's style, and he sauntered out to meet his 
playmates with all the self-consciousness of one wearing, for the 
first time, his new spring suit. But if he expected to be sur- 
rounded immediately by admiring and envious playmates he was 
doomed to disappointment. Shouts of derision and taunts of 
"Unaka !"'* greeted him on all sides ; even his most intimate 
friends held aloof. Although the day was a most unhappy one 
he stood staunchly by his new suit until bedtime. But while 
being dresssed by his grandmother the next morning he burst 
into tears and after much coaxing told her of his humiliation 
of the day before. She comforted him as grandmothers are 
wont to do the world over. Promptly the nankeen suit came 
off, the hunting shirt, leggins and moccasins went on, and the 
small boy ran shouting to his play happy and "at home" again, 
as he termed it, warmly welcomed by his dusky clansmen who 
had "boycotted" him the day before. 

About the time of this incident the problem of educating 
his children began seriously to concern Daniel Ross. There 
were no schools in the Cherokee Nation and, because of hostility 
between the Indians and backsettlers, there was great hesitancy 
on the part of conservative chiefs to adopt any European 
customs. A few of the more progressive members of the tribe, 
however, were beginning to realize that in order to cope suc- 
cessfully with the white man they must understand his lan- 
guage, customs and laws. The broader policy prevailed in the 
great council to which Ross presented a request to establish a 
school on his own premises,^ and import a schoolmaster. The 
request was granted. John Barber Davis was employed as 
teacher, and the school, started about the end of the eighteenth 
century, was the beginning of a new era in the history of the 
tribe. It Avas in this school and under this schoolmaster that 
John Ross laid the foundation for good English, both oral and 
written, which in his later life often astonished statesmen, baffled 
politicians, and served him well in his long career in Cherokee 
national affairs. 

* White man. , •' 

* Daniel Ross was now living at Maryville, Tennessee, about six hun- 
dred miles from his former residence. 



The Youth and Early Trainixg of John Ross 5 

When John and his brother, Lewis, were old enough they 
were sent to Kingston" to attend a popular acadeni}' at that 
place. While here they lived in the family of a merchant, a 
friend of tlieir father, and helped him in the store out of school 
hours, Kingston was a busy and enterprising town on the 
great emigrant road from Virginia and Maryland through 
Ciunberland Gap to Nashville. At the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century a constant stream of emigrants was pouring 
over this highway seeking homes in the rich valleys of Tennes- 
see and Kentucky. Here the two Scotch Cherokee lads, coming 
in contact with the busy, bustling life about them, had their 
minds aroused to such activity that progress in their school 
work went b}^ leaps and bounds, and they proved to be among 
the brightest scholars of the institution. They also received 
practical training as clerks in the store, learning methods of 
business and accommodation to circumstances which proved to 
great advantage to them when they were ready to go into busi- 
ness for themselves.^ 

After spending two or three years at Kingston they were 
called home by the death of their mother to whom both the boys 
were particularly devoted. She was a woman of strong char- 
acter and unusual intelligence, and her influence upon her 
children was one of the dominant factors of their lives. Herself 
intensely loyal to the traditions of her ancestors, she lost no 
opportunity of instilling these sentiments in the minds of her 
children. For her son John, who was the pride of her heart, 
she had cherished the greatest love and ambition. He was 
heartbroken and almost prostrated with grief at her loss and 
never, throughout his long life, ceased to cherish her memory. 

When the brothers, John and Lewis, grew to manhood they 
set up in business for themselves at Ross's^ Landing in company 
with John Meigs. ^ Their business prospered and the young 
men enjoyed the reputation for sobriety and honesty, which 
their father had established before them. 

" Tennessee. 

'McKenney and Hall, p. 296. 

^ Now Chattanooga, where he finally located. 

'Son of R. G. Meigs, Indian agent for the Cherokees. 



6 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

John developed into an especially attractive young man of 
medium height and slender, supple figure. His eyes were blue 
and his hair was brown. He is said to have looked like a typical 
Scotchman, though he manifested man}^ Indian traits of char- 
acter. He possessed a quiet, reserved manner and a personality 
which inspired everyone with confidence and respect. 

When still a youth he took an active interest in the aifaira 
of the tribe, and the older men discussed with him freely the 
problems which were interesting and puzzling them at this time. 
He thus began at an early age not only to be interested in the 
development of the Cherokees into the greatest nation of civi- 
lized Indians, but to have a vital part in that development. 

In order to have a better understanding and appreciation 
of his character it is necessary at this point to take at least a 
rapid survey of the history of the Cherokee Indians up to this 
time. 



CHAPTER II 

Early History of the Cherokees 

^t the beginning of the nineteenth century the Cherokees 
were the most powerful and the most civilized of all the North 
American Indians./ Their possessions, which at one time ex- 
tended from the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains 
almost to the Mississippi and from northern Kentucky to cen- 
tral Alabama and Georgia, though greatly diminished, still 
covered a territory of fifty-three thousand square miles, almost 
half of which lay in Tennessee, a small area in southwestern 
North Carolina, the rest being about equally divided between 
Alabama and Georgia. They were the mountaineers of the 
south holding the mountain barriers between the English settle- 
ments on the Atlantic Seacoast and the French and Spanish 
garrisons in the Mississippi Valley and on the Gulf Coast. 
They called themselves Yun-wi-yah, meaning principal 
people. The name Cherokee, or Cheraqui has been given more 
than one interpretation. According to one version it is a con- 
traction of two words meaning "He takes fire."^ It was be- 
lieved by the Spaniards to signify rock-dwellers, and was 
probably given them by neighboring tribes as descriptive of 
their mountain country," which according to Bancroft, was the 
most picturesque and salubrious region east of the Mississippi. 
"Their homes are encircled by blue hills rising beyond blue 
hills of which the lofty peaks would kindle with the early light 
and the overshadowing night envelop the valleys like a cloud."^ 
David Brown, a Cherokee youth educated at Cornwall, Connecti- 
cut, writing in 1822, describes it as a well-watered and fertile 
region ; "Abundant springs of pure water are to be found 
everywhere," he says. "A range of lofty and majectic mountains 
stretch themselves across the nation, the northern part of which 

^This probably originated in the belief that at the Creation the Great 
Spirit gave the tribe a sacred fire which was to be kept perpetually 
burning. 

"^ Mooney, Myths of the Cherokees. 19th. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 
Vol. I, p. 15. 

« Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol. II, p. 95. 



8 John Ross and the Cherokke Indians 

is hilly wliile in the southern and western parts are extensive 
and fertile plains, covered partly with tall trees through which 
beautiful streams of water glide. The climate is delightful and 
iiealthy ; the winters are mild and the spring clothes the ground 
with richest verdure. Cherokee flowers of exquisite beauty and 
variegated hues meet and fascinate the eye in every direction."* 

Cradled in such surroundings it is not strange that the 
Cherokees were instinctively artistic and responsive to every 
form of natural beauty. The song of bird and the delicate 
fragrance of wild flower delighted, while the massive grandeur 
of mountain and forest filled with awe and admiration these 
clnldren of the wilderness, often inspiring their minds to lofty 
flights of fancy which sometimes found expression in metaphors 
of exceeding subtlety and beauty. 

Attachment to their ancestral homes was strong and sincere 
and had its root deep in the past of their domestic and religious 
institutions. As is always the case when a primitive people has 
dwelt for a long time in the same region their legends had be- 
come localized and were associated Avith mountain peak and 
prominent rock and tree, with spring and cave and deep river- 
bend. 

The English traveller Bartram describes the people of this 
tribe as of larger stature and fairer complexion than their 
southern neighbors. "In their manner and disposition they are 
grave and steady; dignified and circumspect in their deport- 
ment ; rather slow and reserved in their conversation, yet frank, 
cheerful and humane; tenacious of the liberties and natural 
rights of man ; secret, deliberate and determined in their coun- 
cils; honest, just and liberal, and ready always to sacrifice 
every pleasure and gratification, even their blood and life itself, 
to defend their territory and maintain their rights."^ The men 
are described as tall, erect and moderately robust; their 
feaures regular and their countenances open, dignified and 
placid, exhibiting an air of magnanimity, superiority and rude 
independence ; The women as tall, slender, erect and of delicate 
frame; their features formed with perfect symmetry; their 

* American State Papers, II, p. 651. 

^Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina and Georgia, 
etc., pp. 366-368 (1792). 



Early History of the Cherokees 9 

^'countenance cheerful and friendly ; they move with a becom- 
ing grace and dignity.'"' 

They were a religious people: but "never in their most 
savage state did they worship the work of their own hands, 
neither fire nor water."' They believed in a Great First Cause, 
in a spirit of Good, and a spirit of Evil in constant warfare 
with each other, the Good finally prevailing. Heaven, an open 
forest of shade and fruit trees, was adorned with fragrant 
fioAvers and mossy banks beside cool sparkling streams ; game 
abounded and there were enough feasts and dances to satisfy 
but not to cloy the appetite for pleasure. This happy and 
immortal region reserved for beautiful women, prepared and 
adorned by the Great Spirit, and men distinguished for valor, 
wisdom and hospitality, lay just across the way from the land 
of Evil Spirits, where the w^-etched who had failed on earth were 
compelled to live in hunger, hostility and darkness, hearing and 
seeing the rejoicings of the happy Avithout the hope of even 
reaching the delectable shores. 

Witches and wizards were abroad in the land, who professed 
supernatural powers and were supposed to have intercourse 
with evil spirits and to have the power of transforming them- 
selves into beasts and birds in which forms they took nocturnal 
excursions in pursuit of human prey, usually, though not 
always, those stricken with disease. The croak of a frog or the 
hoot of an owl in the twilight was enough to strike terror to the 
heart of the bravest Indian child who verily believed that the 
witches "would get him if he didn't watch out."® 

Adair, who for forty years was a trader among the southern 
Indians and travelled extensively through their country between 
1785 and 1775 describes the Cherokees as living in villages 
situated beside "cool, sparkling streams,"® in which they bathed 
frequently, either as a religious rite or for the purpose of 
"seasoning" the body and rendering it indifferent to exposure. 

« Ibid. 

■John Ridge to Albert Gallatin, 1826. Payne Mss. 8. 

'John Ridge to Albert Gallatin. Payne Mss. 8. 

'Adair, J., History of the American Indians, pp. 224-226. 



10 John Ross and thk Cherokee Indians 

"They are almost as impenetrable to cold as a bar of steel," 
he declares.^" 

— - Their villages lay in four main groups :^^ the Lower Settle- 
ments lying upon the head streams of the Savannah; the 
Middle Settlements on the Tennessee and its southern tribu- 
taries ; the Valley Towns west of them between two ranges of 
the Blue Ridge Mountains; and the Overhill Settlements on 
the Little Tennessee between the Blue Ridge and Holston. 
Besides these main groups were scattered towns situated in 
different parts of the Cherokee country. It was estimated in 
1735 that there were sixty-four towns and villages, "populous 
and full of women and children,'"'" with about sixteen or seven- 
teen thousand souls all told, over six thousand of whom were 
warriors. Each village had its council house and its outlying 
fields of maize, beans and squashes, the common property of 
the community. The head man of the village, together with 
certain warriors distinguished for prowess, not only managed 
local' affairs but represented the village at the General Council 
of the Nation usually held^' at Chota^* on the Tellico River. 
A certain loose tribal unity was maintained by a principal 
chief and by certain laws or regulations by which every member 
of the tribe was bound. 

To summarize, the Cherokees, by virtue of their location 
had developed an artistic temperament, certain physical and 
mental characteristics and a form of religious belief in keeping 
with and influenced by their surroundings. Because of this 
intimate relation their attachment to their country was exceed- 
ingly strong, a fact important in the explanation of their later 
actions, but often either overlooked or disregarded by the ever 
encroaching whites. 

Contact of the Cherokees with Europeans dates back to the 
middle of the sixteenth century Avhen the daring and adven- 
turous De Soto marching northward from Tampa Bay and 

" Ibid, p. 226. 

'^ Each village having its own peculiar dialect. 

12 Adair, p. 227. 

'"Before 1785. 

" The Ancient peace town or "City of Refuge." 



Early History of the Cherokees 11 

passing over "rough and high hills" arrived in the land of the 
Cheraqui. The Spaniards described the Indians as a naked, 
lean and unwarlike people given to hospitality to strangers. 
To the travellers they presented baskets of berries and presents 
of corn, wild turkeys and an edible species of small dog which 
latter the Cherokees themselves did not eat, according to the 
Gentleman of Elvas.^" 

From time to time the Cherokees met Spanish explorers and 
English and French settlers from whom they gradually adopted 
such civilized arts as appealed to them. That they so long- 
remained conservative to European ideas and appeared to dis- 
dain anything alien was due to the fact that there was so little 
in civilization that appealed to people in the barbarous stage, 
and not to their lack of intellectual vigor. Their own tools and 
implements were so admirably suited to their purposes that 
they did not feel the need of better ones. Fire arms proved an 
exception. The Indian learned their use readily for by them 
he was enabled to supply the growing demand of furs, the 
chief article of trade with Europeans, and to hold his own with 
'his enemies. By 1715 about twelve hundred Cherokee warriors 
were supplied with guns, and a few years later the governor of 
South Carolina furnished two hundred more with guns and 
ammunition on condition that they would help him in a war 
upon a neighboring tribe. ^"^ 

Before the end of the seventeenth century Virginia and 
South Carolina traders began dealing with the Cherokees. In 
1690 Cornelius Daugherty, a Virginia Irishman, established 
himself among the tribe with whom he spent the remainder of 
his life. He was followed by other traders, some of whom were 
not on the very best terms with the aborigines, due chiefly to 
their custom of purchasing or capturing Indians to be sold in 
the settlements or to the West Indies, and to their general 
conduct toward the natives which was described as sometimes 
"very abuseful."^' Complaints of these abuses coming from 

^' The Gentleman of Elvas. Publication of the Hakluyt Society IX, 
pp. 53, 58, 64. 

"Haywood, Natural and Aboriginal Tennessee, p. 227. Fire arms were 
first introduced among them about 1700. 

" Hewat, A., Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies 
of South Carolina and Georgia, Vol. I, pp. 297, 298. 



12 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

the Cherokecs to Governor Nicholson, coupled with the jealousy 
of French encroachments upon English trade with the Indians, 
caused him to arrange for a conference of chiefs to be held at 
Charleston in 1721. A treaty establishing a boundary between 
the Cherokees and the settlement was agreed upon; a chief 
was designated as the head of the nation to represent it in all 
dealings with the Colonial Government; a commissioner was 
appointed to superintend the relation of the colony with the 
Cherokees and a small cession of land was made,^^ the first in 
the long list that was to follow. 

Nine years later we find North Carolina commissioning Sir 
Alexander Cummings to arrange a treaty of alliance with the 
tribe. After a preliminary meeting with the chiefs on the 
Hiwassee in the Cherokee country he conveyed a committee 
of six of them, bearing the crown of the nation, to England 
where after a visit of several weeks they signed the treaty of 
Dover. The treaty provided that the Cherokees trade with no 
other country than England, and that none but Englishmen 
be allowed to build forts or cabins, or plant corn among them.^*^ 
In return for these' concessions the chiefs carried home a gener- 
ous supply of paint, a feAV pounds of beads and some other 
equally worthless articles. Flattered by the courteous treat- 
ment which they received in England they did not at first 
realize the disproportionateness of the bargain. 

These two treaties were but the beginning of land cessions 
by which, year after year, from this time on, under one pretext 
or another, the aborigines were shorn of their ancestral domains 
and found themselves powerless to prevent it. 

In 1755, a treaty and purchase of land were again negoti- 
ated by South Carolina. ''* In 1756 North Carolina commis- 
sioned Hugh Waddel to conclude a treaty of alliance and ces- 
sion which was followed up the same year by Governor Glenn's 

I'Ibid; Royce, Cherokee Nation. 5th Report of Bureau of Ethnologj% 
p. 144. 

"Hewat, A., Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colo- 
nies of South Carolina and Georgia, Vol. II, pp. 3, 9, 11. The crown of 
the nation consisted of five eagle tails and four scalps. It is otherwise 
known as the "War Bonnet." 

«> Ibid. 



Early History of the Cherokees 13 

chain of military forts, Fort Prince George erected on the 
Savannah, Fort Monroe 170 miles farther down the river and 
Fort Loudon on the Tennessee at the mouth of the Tellico."^ 
In 1777 Cherokee hostilities were put down with a heavy hand 
by the combined forces from Virginia, North Carolina and 
South Carolina and most of their principal towns on the Ten- 
nessee destroyed." A cession"" of land was wrung from the 
Indians which proved so distasteful to the Chicamauga band 
that they refused to assent to it. Moving westward they settled 
the "Five Lower Towns" on the Tennessee, among which was 
Lookout Mountain town where Daniel Ross came so near losing 
his life. With various other treaties these bring us to the end 
of the official relations of the Cherokees with Colonial Govern- 
ment so far as concerns land cession and to the War of Inde- 
pendence and the formation of the Confederation. 

The mother country and her colonies by failing at the outset 
to adopt a definite systematic policy of justice and humanity 
towards the Indians established the precedent for all subsequent 
dealings with them. Charters and patents granted by England 
to the Colonies neglected to give due consideration to the prior 
claims of the aboriginal tribes. The colonies left their course 
with the Indians to be directed by circumstances. Agents and 
commissioners were given a free hand in securing land cessions 
and arranging treaties. Bribes were used without scruple and 
chiefs and headmen corrupted by every available means. That 
any advantage which might be taken of the ignorance and mis- 
understanding of natives unfamiliar with the English language 
was considered legitimate is evident to any one familiar with 
the history of Indian treaties. Neither governments nor indi- 
viduals considered it dishonest to cheat an Indian, criminal to ^ 
rob him nor murder to kill him. Any attempt to protect him or 
to teach him the way of salvation was scarcely deemed meri- 
torious. That amicable relations existed at all between the 
Indians and the English was due to two causes: first, the few 
exceptional white men who looked upon the savage as entitled 
to the same justice and humanity as that to which the white 

" Martin, North Carolina, Vol. II, p. 8T. 

'^American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 431. 

"■^ At Deivitt's Corners; Haywood's History of Tennessee, p. 451. 



14 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

man is entitled; and second, to the increasing proximity of 
Spaniards in Florida and French in the Mississippi Valley and 
on the Gulf Coast, bidding for Indian trade. These the English 
watched with jealous eye, dreading not only the loss of profit- 
able trade but the hostility of the natives who could become 
formidable enemies at the very back doors of the settlements. 
This fear caused the Colonists to adopt a conciliatory policy 
toward the Cherokees who, responding to their advances, 
formed an alliance with them against the French. In the 
attack upon Fort Duquesne a band of Cherokee warriors ren- 
dered valuable service to the English. The contemptuous 
attitude of British and Colonial officers, the severe military 
restraint placed upon them, suspicion of their fidelity together 
with various other reasons, caused them to become dissatisfied 
and return home. Having lost their horses in an encounter with 
the French and being fatigued by the long journey, the}^ supplied 
themselves with mounts from a herd which they found running 
at large on the frontier. The inhabitants of Virginia, horrified 
at this act of horse stealing, attacked the warriors on their way 
home through the settlements and killed forty of them. An act 
of treachery on the part of a settler who invited a party of 
Cherokees to his house in order that they might be surrounded 
and shot down as they left his hospitable roof completed the 
estrangement. Ata-KuUa-Kulla, a prominent chief, calling a 
council of war declared that after they should have safely con- 
ducted back to the settlements some Englishmen who were 
among them for the purpose of arranging a treaty, "the 
hatchet shall never be buried until the blood of our people shall 
be avenged." "But let us not violate our faith," said he, "by 
shedding the blood of those who have come among us in con- 
fidence bearing belts of wampum to cement a perpetual friend- 
ship. Let us carry them back to the settlements and then take 
up the hatchet and endeavor to exterminate the whole race of 
them."^* In the blood}' war which followed villages were 
burned, orchards and maize fields destroyed, women and children 
murdered, many warriors slain, and the remaining inhabitants 

^McKenney & Hall, History of the Indicm Tribes of North America, 
Vol. Ill, p. 343 (1855). 



Eakia- History of the Cherokees 15 

forced to take refuge in the caves of the mountains until peace 
was restored by the humiliating treaty of 1760. 

The tribe had not fully recovered from the effects of this 
struggle when they were confronted with the War of Independ- 
ence. Smarting under their recent defeat and resenting the 
steady encroachment of colonists upon their hunting grounds, 
they promptly ranged themselves on the side of the British 
and placed their warriors at the service of King George. In 
the border warfare which followed, Indians and whites vied 
with each other in the atrocity of their deeds. The Cherokees, 
finally completely defeated, were forced to sue for peace in 1785. 
By the terms of the treaty of Hopewell which followed. Congress 
was to pass laws regulating trade with them; the Cherokees 
were allowed to send a delegate to Congress and no whites were 
to be suffered to settle upon Cherokee lands. "^ This treaty was 
unsatisfactory to Indians and whites alike. The latter paid 
scant attention to the article forbidding them to settle on 
Indian lands ; the natives refused to submit to the encroach- 
ment of the settlers and kept them terrified by sudden raids and 
bloody massacres. The whites retaliated in kind and this con- 
dition of affairs kept up until stopped by intervention of the 
Federal Government in 1790. 

As early as 1789 General Knox, Secretary of War, called 
the attention of President Washington to the disgraceful vio- 
lation of the treaty of Hopewell and recommended the appoint- 
ment of a commission to look into the matter and, if need be, 
negotiate a more effective treaty."® In August of the next 
year the Senate passed a resolution providing for such a com- 
mission and the result was the treaty of Holston which, in 
addition to settling the boundary question, gave the Federal 
Government the exclusive right to trade with the Cherokees, 
granted an annuity of $1000 and promised to supply imple- 
ments of husbandry and send four persons into the Cherokee 
Nation to act as interpreters."' 

An Indian agent who was sent to see that the policy of the 
treaty was carried out established headquarters on the Hi- 

-\4n}er. State Paper.s-, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 953. 

*Ibid, p. 53. 

^7 <7. S. Statutes at Large, p. Q'i; Cong. Doc. 531, No. 28, p. U8. 



16 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

wassee River near where it empties into the Tennessee and 
from this point settled disputes between the whites and Chero- 
kees, enforced intercourse laws, apportioned annuities and dis- 
tributed plows, hoes, spinning wheels, cards and looms among 
the Indians and instructed them in their use. Colonel Silas 
Dinsmore,'® who was agent from 1796 to 1799 devoted his 
energies to the raising of cotton, to which some sections of the 
nation were excellently Avell suited. Major Lewis succeeded 
him and was succeeded in turn by R. J. Meigs, an old Revolu- 
tionary soldier, who had marched to Quebec with Arnold. For 
twenty-two years he served as Indian agent rendering efficient 
and intelligent service and acquiring a knowledge of the char- 
acter and needs of the Cherokees which made him authority in 
their affairs"" as long as he lived. 

This new policy of the Federal Government gave encour- 
agement, impetus and direction to the progressive spirit already 
abroad in the nation. Notwithstanding the half century of 
intermittent warfare the Cherokees had made considerable ad- 
vancement before the treaty of Holston. Adair states that 
horses had been introduced among them early in the eighteenth 
century and that by 1760 they had a prodigious number of 
them and they were of excellent quality. The same may be 
said of cattle, hogs and poultry. Sevier on his expedition 
against the Coosatowns in 1793 allowed his army to kill three 
hundred beeves at Etowah and leave their carcasses rotting on 
the ground.'^" Benjamin Hawkins while travelling through the 
Cherokee Nation three years later met two Indian women driv- 
ing ten fat cattle to the settlements to sell.^^ Indian pork was 
highly esteemed by the Colonists; "At the fall of the leaf" 
says Adair, "the woods are full of hickory nuts, acorns, chest- 
nuts and the like, which occasions the Indian bacon to be more 
streaked, firm and better tasted than any we met with in the 
English settlement."^- Baskets were made by the women and 
pottery of simple though pleasing design was moulded from 

28 Payne Mss. 8, Ridge to Gallatin, 1836; also Payne Mss. 5, extract 
from Journals of the Moravians. 

'"Royce, Cherokee Nation, p. 231. 

^''Mooney, Myths of the Cherokees, p. 82. 

»* Ibid. 

=2 Adair, p. 230. 



Early History of the Cherokees IT 

clay and glazed by holding in the smoke of corn meal bran;^' 
hunting was a lucrative occupation of the men until the end of 
the nineteenth century, a party of traders taking home at one 
trip thirty wagon loads of furs. 

By their geographic position and superior numbers, the 
Cherokees might have held the balance of power in the south 
had it not been for the looseness of their tribal organization. 
The first attempt to weld the whole nation into a political unit 
was in 1736 when Christian Priber, a French Jesuit, went to 
live among them and, by promptly adapting himself to their 
language and dress, won their confidence to such an extent that 
he was able to induce them to adopt a scheme of government 
which he drew up, modelled on the French monarchy, with the 
chief medicine man as emperor, himself as secretary of state, 
and Great Tellico as the national capital.'** But when Priber 
was arrested by the authorities of North Carolina on the accu- 
sation of being a secret emissary of the French, this scheme 
gradually wenl to pieces. It was seventy-two years later that 
they reorganized their government and adopted their first code 
of written laws. In 1808 the Council provided for the organi- 
zation of regulating parties to maintain order in the nation, 
named the penalty for horse stealing and declared that father-' 
less children should inherit the father's property in case the 
mother married again. ^^ It had been the custom among the 
Cherokees, time out of mind, to transmit from father to son the 
memory of the loss by violence of relatives or members of the 
clan. With the memory also was transmitted the obligation 
to revenge the loss. "Who sheddeth man's blood, by the clans- 
men of the deceased shall his blood be shed," was considered 
good savage ethics; but the Cherokee Nation emerging from 
barbarism had outgrown this ancient custom, and in 1810 an 
act of oblivion for all past murder was passed by unanimous 
consent of the seven clans in council at Oostinaleh ;''*^ pun- 
ishment was taken from the clan and placed in the hands of the 

"^ Payne Mss. 6, p. 61. 

^* Adair, pp. 240, 24.3. 

^^Amer. State Papers, Indian Affairs, II, p. 282. 

^ Ibid, p. 283. 



18 John Ross and the Chkrokee Indians 

General Council. The later development in government will be 
taken up and treated in a future chapter. 

With the exception of the work done by Priber and the 
Federal Government no outside aid had been given the 
Cherokees and no effort was made to civilize or Christianize 
them before the end of the eighteenth century. A writer of the 
times declares that, "to the shame of the Christian name no 
pains have ever been taken to convert them to Christianity."^^ 
On the other hand their morals were perverted by contact with 
some of the worst vices of the white man : chief of these was in- 
toxicating liquors, which wrought sad havoc with the tribe cor- 
rupting morals and government until strict laws were passed by 
the Council prohibiting its importation under a penalty of for- 
feiture to natives and forfeiture and a fine of $100 for outsiders. 
Indeed it has proven a curse and a blight to these Indians even 
down to the present generation. 

The first mission station in the Cherokee Nation was estab- 
lished in 1801 by the Moravians and grew out of a desire on 
the part of the Cherokees to educate their children rather than 
eagerness to embrace a new religion. This peaceful sect of 
German Christians had established a settlement on the Upper 
Yadkin about 1752. During the Indian Wars Cherokee chiefs 
who had been hospitably received by them expressed a desire 
that teachers be sent to their people and the evangelizing of 
that tribe had never been lost sight of by the Brethren.^^ In 
1799 two missionaries from this place visited the Cherokees to 
investigate the question. As a result the next year a Council 
was held at Tellico Agency and after much discussion in which 
considerable opposition was expressed permission was granted 
the missionaries to start a school. The Rev. Abraham Steiner 
and Gottlieb Byham began to hold religious services in the home 
of David Vann, a mixed-blood Cherokee of progressive ideas, 
but on account of various difficulties the school M-as not started 
promptly. At the Great Council held at Oostinaleh a few miles 
distant, it was declared that the Cherokee Nation wanted edu- 

^'Mooney, Mxjths of the Cherokees, p. 38; Carroll's Hist. Collections 
of South Carolina, II, pp. 97-8, 517 (1836). 

=** Thompson, A. C., Moravian Missions, p. 341; Amer. State Papers, 
Indian Affairs, I, p. 28i3. 



Early History of the Cherokees 19 

caters, not theologians, and unless the missionaries could open 
a school within six months they should leave the Nation. With 
the encouragement of Agent Meigs and the assistance of Yann 
and Charles Hicks the school was finally built, Vann donating 
a part of his farm as a location, lodging the missionaries while 
the mission was building and lending substantial aid in the 
construction of the house. The school was opened in due time 
and the children of some prominent chiefs soon enrolled as stu- 
dents. In 1805 Reverend and Mrs. John Gambold took charge 
at Spring Place where they remained until her death fifteen 
years later. 

In 1804^, the Presbyterians followed the INIoravians and 
established a school at Maryville, Tennessee, with the Reverend 
Gideon Blackburn at its head, while the American Board of 
Foreign Missions established in 1817"" the famous Baptist 
School at Brainard jNlission from which Missionary Ridge 
took its name. A great religious revival swept over the country 
beginning about 1818,*" but up to this time there were re- 
markably few conversions to the Christian religion, those of 
Catherine Brown, the first Cherokee convert, Margaret Vann, 
wife of David Vann, and Charles Hicks, later to become for a 
short time Principal Chief of the Nation, being the most notable. 

The missionaries worked side by side with their pupils 
their instruction being thus practical as well as theoretical and 
industrial as well as religious. They in this wa}^ gained a very 
strong hold upon the natives, and their influence among them 
for good is not easily estimated. To them is due in large part 
the splendid school system which the Cherokees were able to 
build up and maintain in after years in the wilderness beyond 
the Mississippi. 

Intermarriage of the Cherokees with Europeans dates back 
to early colonial times. Until the end of the eighteenth century 
it was confined chiefly to white men, but after that time several 
white women married into the tribe. The intermarried white 
men were usually traders or officers and soldiers of the frontier 
forts with a few men from the back settlements and were of 

^' Gude, Mary B., Georgia and the Cherokees, p. 24. 

« Ibid, p. 23. 



20 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

good English, Scotch, Irish or Huguenot stock. The Dougher- 
ties, Vcanns, Rogers, Gunters, Wards and McDonalds are among 
their descendants. By the beginning of the nineteenth century 
the mixed population with civilized ideas was one of the domi- 
nant political forces among the Cherokees which made itself 
felt in the reorganization of the government from 1808 to 1827. 

The opening of highways in the Indian country was another 
tremendous influence for civilization, though, like most other 
innovations of the white man, they were bitterly resented by the 
conservative Indians. But by 1816, however, treaties had 
been arranged*^ permitting the opening of all roads necessary 
for intercourse between Tennessee, Georgia, and the territory 
lying directly west of them for the convenience of travellers. 
For the same purpose general stores and public houses of enter- 
tainment were built at intervals along these roads which proved 
a source of considerable income to the owners, who were natives 
of the nation. The opening of highways through this country 
brought the whole nation more closely in touch with the outside 
world and by stimulating trade and encouraging the accumu- 
lation of property prepared the way for further developments. *- 
" Negro slavery also had its part in the history of the de- 
velopment of the Cherokees. The first of the slaves were run- 
away negroes from the Virginia and Carolina settlements whom 
the Indians appropriated to their own use in cultivating their 
fields.*^ They proved so profitable that others were bought 
from the settlers from time to time and slavery gradually be- 
came a settled institution of the tribe. In their relations with 
their slaves it is to the credit of the Cherokees that their treat- 
ment of them was so humane that slaves preferred living in 
the nation to residence in the United States; and that there 
was rarely ever an intermixture of Cherokee and African 
blood.^* In 1825 there were one thousand two hundred and 
seventy-seven negro slaves in the Cherokee Nation.*^ By their 

^^Cong. Doc. 531, No. 28, p. 148; Amer. State Papers, Ind. Af., I, 
p. 649; Royce, Cherokee Nation of Indians, p. 187; Amer. State Papers, I, 
p. 698; 3 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 139. 

^ Morse, Indian Reports. Hicks to Calhoun, 1822. 

"McKenney & Hall, Indian Tribes of North America, Vol. Ill, p. 331. 

**Amer. State Papers, Indian A fairs, II, p. 651. Letter of David Brown. 

« Ibid. 



Early History of the Cherokees 21 

help farming, especially the raising of cotton, developed more 
rapidly than it would have done under native labor, and more 
leisure and opportunity for culture were given to both men and 
women. 

The beginning of the westward emigration among the 
Cherokees is shrouded in legend and tradition. The story of 
the Lost Cherokees indicates that a part of the tribe migrated 
beyond the Father of Waters at a very early time. It is 
probable that bands of hunters visited the western prairies at 
intervals before the discovery of America by Europeans. Wars 
with the settlers, discontent over land cessions and intrusion ' 
of whites upon their domains led small bands to migrate into 
Spanish territory where a settlement was made on the St. 
Francis River in Arkansas;*'' later they removed to a tract of 
land between the Arkansas and the White Rivers, and ,^n 1803 
came under the control of the Federal Government. 

Jefferson, in order to validate the Louisiana Purchase and 
justify himself in the e^^es of his strict construction con- 
stituents, thinking he saw light in the direction of Indian re- 
moval, drew up a rough draft of a constitutional amendment 
which had for its central idea the removal of all the Indian 
tribes to the newly acquired territory.*^ On his recommenda- 
tion an appropriation of $15,000 was made by Congress as 
the preliminary step towards bringing about this result.*® 
When, in 1808, a delegation of Cherokees was about to visit 
Washington to ask for an adjustment of their differences and 
a more equitable distribution of annuities, the Secretary of 
War wrote Agent Meigs to embrace every occasion for sound- 
ing the chiefs on the subject of the removal of the whole 
tribe. *^ A considerable difference existed at this time between 
the Upper and Lower Cherokees ; the former were chiefly farm- 
ers while the latter, still hunters, were beginning to feel 
themselves hedged in by the narrowing boundaries of their 
hunting grounds. Differences of opinion growing out of these 

^ Payne Mss. 3, 71. 

"Abel, Indian Consolidation, Chap. 1. 

« Royce, Cherokee Nation of Indians, pp. 202, 203. 

*» Indian Office Manuscript Records, Secretary Dearborn to Agent 
Meigs, March 25, 1808. 



22 John Ross axd the Cherokee Indians 

differences in occupations led to discontent. In May, 1808, 
a delegation of Upper Cherokees arrived in Washington, re- 
questing that a line be drawn between their lands and those 
of the Lower Cherokees, that their lands be allotted them in 
severalty, and that the}^ be admitted as citizens of the United 
States, Avhile their brethren in the South might hunt as long 
as the game lasted. In his talk with them Jefferson encouraged 
removal, but informed them that citizenship could not be con- 
ferred upon them except by Congress^" The next year or two 
the idea of removal seems to have gained favor with both Upper 
and Lower Cherokees. An appropriation having been made 
for' the purpose a delegation was sent out to investigate the 
Arkansas country and returned with such favorable reports 
that a large number was prepared to move at once. Jefferson 
went out of office, however, before anything could be accom- 
plished and Mr. Madison was not in favor of removal on a 
large scale. Although by 1817 between 2000 and 3000" had 
emigrated, the emigration was not officially countenanced either 
by the United States or their own Nation.^" Other delegations 
went to Arkansas in 1818 and 1819 and still later, even to 
within a short time before the New Echota Treaty of 1835. 
These Cherokees constituted what were later called Old Settlers. 
In this way there came to be a Cherokee Nation East and a 
Cherokee Nation West. 

This survey of Cherokee history will furnish a partial idea 
of the conditions in the Cherokee Nation when John Ross, was 
growing to manhood, and beginning to enter upon the duties 
of a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. 

'"Jefferson's Works, Library Edition, XYI, 432-435. 

" Royce, p. 204. 

°-Amer. State Papers, Indian Affairs, II, pp. 97, 125. 



CHAPTER III 

John Ross Begixxixg His Public Career 

11 chanced that John Ross, though peculiarly devoted to 
the interests of his own people, the Cherokees, nevertheless ren- 
dered his first public services to the Federal Government, as the 
following incidents will prove. 

During the years just preceding the War of 1812 the 
Indian question assumed unusual importance at Washington. 
The Soutliern tribes were still strong enough, if united by 
Tecumthe's plan of a Southern Confederacy, to cause con- 
siderable trouble should they choose to renew their allegiance 
with Great Britain. Frequent reports reached the War Office 
that agents of the British Government were arming the Indians 
of the Great Lakes and the Western frontier and encouraging 
hostilities to the United States.^ A war with England and an 
uprising on the frontier at one and the same time appeared 
doubly embarrassing to a government poorly equipped for 
fighting in either direction. In order to conciliate the Indians 
and attach them as strongly as possible to the American cause, 
the Secretary of War instructed Indian agents to promote and 
maintain friendly relations with the Indian tribes" and at the 
same time furnished them the means of carrying out this policy. 
Gifts to prominent chiefs, medals for services to the Federal 
Government, appointments in the army, a friendly interest in 
their tribal affairs, all tended to have the desired effect upon 
the Southern tribes. This was true particularly of the Chero- 
kees, whose agent. Colonel R. J. Meigs, was one of the wisest 
and most efficient men who has ever served the United States 
and the Indians in the capacity of agent. The Eastern Chero- 
kees were enjoying unprecedented prosperity and were rapidly 
taking on civilized manners and customs; consequently, they 
favored peace. To make sure of the band in Arkansas, the 
agent dispatched an interpreter to them bearing gifts as 
peace offerings. The interpreter, alarmed by rumors of an 

^Indian A fairs, I, 797-804. 

== Circular letter from Department of War to Southern Agents, June 
20, 1805, Indian Office Manuscript Records. 



24 John Ross anb the Cherokee Indians 

earthquake at New Madrid, returned home. Colonel Meigs, 
thereupon, asked John Ross, then a young man about nine- 
teen years of age, to undertake the mission. On Christmas 
day he set out from Ross's Landing armed with additional 
gifts and accompanied by John Spier, a half-breed, Kalsatchee, 
an aged Cherokee, and Peter, a Mexican. The boat which 
carried the party was a rude craft entirely unsuited to such 
a journey. Isaac Brownlow,^ a famous frontiersman of his 
day, swore, on meeting the party, that Colonel Meigs was 
either stupid or careless to send an inexperienced young fellow 
on a long expedition in such a plight. He accompanied them 
eighty miles down the river and on leaving them exchanged 
his good keel boat for their "clapboard ark" taking an order 
on the government for the difference, and declaring that he 
would rather lose his boat than see Ross risk making the 
journey as he had started. After sixty days upon the rivers 
in dead of winter, chased by warlike Indians who thought they 
were whites, and suspicious settlers who thought they were an 
Indian party on mischief bent, they wrecked their boat, lost 
the greater part of their baggage and were compelled to finish 
the way on foot. Often up to their knees in mud and water 
and with only such game as they could kill for food, they 
covered the remaining two hundred miles in eight days. 

From start to finish the story of the expedition fairly 
bristles with stirring adventures and hairbreadth escapes; it 
even rivals in interest that of the American hero so dear to 
the heart of every schoolboy. Late in April the party reached 
Ross's Landing from whence they had started, and were able 
in a short time after to report to Colonel Meigs at the agency 
the success of the expedition.* 

The next two or three years were comparatively unevent- 
ful ones for young Ross, spent at his father's home at Rossville*^ 
or on trading trips to different parts of the Cherokee Nation. 
These trading trips gave him opportunity to become acquainted 
with the conditions of the country and brought him in contact 

^ Brother of Parson Brownlow, both well known in Tennesse in their 
day. 

*McKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes of North America, Vol. Ill, p. 298 
(18T0). 

° Now Chattanooga. 



John Ross Beginning His Public Career 25 

with many of the more backward members of the tribe' as 
well as with leading chiefs. Always quiet and unassuming 
and always scrupulously honest in his dealings, he won con- 
fidence and respect wherever he was known. The intimate 
knowledge of country and people acquired during these years 
was destined to be of infinite service to him later on. 

When Tecumthe made his tour through the south and with 
his burning eloquence and his "almanac of red sticks" tried to 
fire the southern tribe to revolt against the United States he 
met with cool courtesy among the Cherokees. A few of the 
mountain chiefs expressed a desire "to dance the war dance of 
the Indians of the Lakes and sing their song," but thanks to 
the influence of Major Ridge, a progressive and influential 
chief of whom we shall hear more later, the war spirit was 
promptly quenched in the council of the tribe.*' When the 
General Council assembled they decided that, as there would be 
more loss than gain to them from an alliance with either of 
the contending parties, they would remain neutral. Thereupon, 
the Red Sticks, as the war party of the Creeks was called, 
perpetrated outrages upon the Cherokees which aroused such 
indignation among the j'oung warriors, already eager to test 
their prowess in battle, that the Council abandoned its peace 
policy, declared war upon the hostile Creeks and placed their 
forces at the command of the Federal Government. Between 
seven hundred and eight hundred warriors under their own 
officers took part in the Creek war and rendered valuable 
services to the American cause. 

Ross promptly enlisted in a regiment raised to cooperate 
with the Tennessee troops, was appointed adjutant and set 
out to the Creek country where he served with distinction in 
several engagements. He took a prominent part in the battle 
of Horse Shoe Bend, where it was undoubtedly the bravery 
and daring of the Cherokees and loyal Creek forces that won 
the victory for General Jackson which rendered him a military 
hero and prepared the way for his promotion, a few years later, 
to the highest rank in the American army. The battle took 

* McKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes of North America, Vol. II, 
pp. 93, 94 (1855). 



26 John Ross and the Cherokej: Indians 

place on the Tallipoosa River about two miles from the site of 
the present village of Tohopeka, Alabama. The Creeks had 
thrown up a strong fortification of logs across the neck of the 
peninsula, made by a bend in the river, and behind it about 
a thousand warriors and three hundred women and children 
had taken refuge. Moored to the river bank behind them were 
their canoes to be used in case retreat became necessary.' When 
it was found that General Jackson with his artillery was making 
no headway on the breastworks, John Ross,^ with several other 
Cherokees, plunged into the river, swam to the peninsula at the 
risk of their lives and brought off the canoes. In these the 
Cherokee forces crossed the river and attacked the Creeks in 
the rear. This diverted the attention of the Creeks from the 
front and Jackson succeeded in storming the fort. They fought 
desperately, but were cut down without mercy. Of the three 
hundred who survived in the fort only three were men. The 
defenders of the Horse Shoe were practically exterminated. 
Some of the Cherokees lived to rue the part they took in this 
inhuman massacre. "If I had known Jackson would drive us 
from our homes I would have killed him that day at the Horse 
Shoe,"^ said Junaluska, an aged chief, many years after. 

On his mission to the Western Cherokees Ross had shown 
energy, tact, prudence and perseverance in prosecuting and 
bringing to a successful close a difficult undertaking. In the 
Creek war he had proved himself a fearless soldier. What more 
was needed to give him prestige with the tribe and a place 
among the foremost men of the Cherokee Nation.^ Moreover, 
he was a man of education according to the standard of the 
time and could meet white men on their own ground. It is not 
surprising, therefore, to find his name in the list of delegates 
who went up to Washington in the winter of 1816 to protest 
against the action of commissioners sent to carry out the pro- 
visions of the treaty of Fort Jackson which came at the close 
of the Creek war. General Jackson, who was appointed one 
of the commissioners to arrange the treaty, showed scant con- 

" Pickett's Alabama, pp. 58-591 (Reprint of 1896). 

* Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 25th Congress, p. 404. 

* Drake, American Indians, p. 401. 



John Ross Beginning His Public Career 27 

sideration to the loyal Creeks and the Cherokces. From the 
former he demanded the cession of the Hickory Grounds com- 
prising more than half the territory of the Creek Nation and 
when they demurred, told them to sign the treaty or join their 
kinsmen who had fled to Florida. General Coffee, detailed by 
General Jackson to survey the lines limiting the cession on 
the north and west, encroached upon the claims of the Chcro- 
kees. When they objected he promptly made a private con- 
tract with Richard Brown, a Cherokee chief through whose 
village the lines ran.^° The Cherokecs, protesting against the 
action of the commissioners, sent a delegation of seven men to 
Washington to lay the matter before the Secretary of War. 
Agent Meigs accompanied them. Notwithstanding the efforts 
of General Jackson who was in Washington at the time the 
delegation arrived to prejudice the Secretary of War against 
them, they secured an interview, stated their case and convinced 
Mr. Crawford of the justice of their claim. The result was 
the negotiation of the treaty of Washington in which the 
boundary lines were satisfactorily established and a claim of 
two thousand five hundred dollars for damages during the 
Creek war was allowed the Cherokces. ^^ General Jackson was 
greatly chagrined over the success of the delegation and his 
intense hatred of Crawford is said to date from this incident. ^^ 
He was naturally no friend to the Indians, though he did not 
hesitate to accept favors from them when occasion arose, and 
his determination to rid the southern states of them was 
strengthened by his temporary embarrassment and humilia- 
tion. From this time forward he and his friends managed to 
secure more and more of the Indian patronage and their in- 
fluence on the War Department tended steadily and per- 
sistently towards the ultimate aim, removal. 

The delegation to Washington in 1816, consisting of 
Colonel Lowrey, Major Walker, Major Ridge, Adjutant Ross 

^" To these proceedings Gen. Jackson gave such eager support as to 
cause suspicion that he and Gen. Coffee were personally interested in the 
new land. Abel, p. 279, note. 

"March 22, 1816. 7 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 139; Indian Treaties, 
pp. 185-187 (1837). 

" Parton, Life of Jackson, p. 356. 



28 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

and Cunnessec, show that the Chcrokees were no longer a 
savage nation to be dealt with after the fashion of former times. 
"These men are men of cultivation and understanding," says 
the National Intelligencer in mentioning their arrival. "Their 
appearance and deportment are such as to entitle them to re- 
spect and attention."^" 

The fact that the Indians were becoming civilized and 
showed evidence of the ability to develop into good American 
citizens, thereby adding strength to the whole American nation, 
did not appeal to politicians who coveted Indian lands. In 
truth this class of men opposed any policy for civilizing the 
Indians, since it would tend to attach them more firmly to the 
soil. And to many a white man just over the border the 
Indian country was the promised land of wealth and plenty 
which he hoped some day to possess. If the delegates returned 
home with the belief that their territorial boundaries were per- 
manently fixed they were soon undeceived. 

Soon after his return from the Creek war, John Ross, in 
partnership with Timothy Meigs," had started a general store 
at Rossville, and in the autumn of 1816 he went to New York 
to buy goods. With a supply of deerskins and furs for 
traffic he went by way of Savannah to New York and Baltimore, 
where he bought the stock of shawls, calicoes, implements and 
such other articles as were in demand among the Cherokees at 
this time. While absent, reports reached him through the news- 
papers, of a commission appointed at Washington for the pur- 
pose of negotiating a treaty with the Cherokees, the object of 
which was to secure their consent to remove west of the Mis- 
sissippi. The Tennessee contingent in Congress had been urg- 
ing the President to free that state of Indians. ^^ Governor 
McMinn had an agent in the Cherokee Nation all winter cam- 
paigning for removal. The Arkansas Cherokees were having 
trouble with the Osages and the Quapaws,^*' as no definite tract 

"Niles' Register 10, p. 16. 

" Son of Agent Meigs. He died soon after this and Mr. Ross's brother 
Lewis succeeded him in business. 

'^ Abel, Indian Consolidation, p. 280 ; Crawford to Meigs, May 27, 1816, 
Indian Office Letter Manuscript Records. 

"Niles' Register 13, p. 74. 



John Ross Beginning His Public Career 29 

of land had been assigned to them nor was likely to be without 
a corresponding cession in the east. They appealed to Wasli- 
ington. President Monroe, relying upon reports sent the War 
Office the previous summer by General Jackson, then among the 
southern tribes, concerning the willingness of the Cherokees 
to emigrate, appointed a commission,'^' which was to meet the 
Cherokees at the Agency, June 20, 1817. The Spring Council 
of the Cherokees met in May at Amohe. The news of the im- 
pending negotiations had gone abroad and men and women 
turned out in full force, as was the custom, to hear the dis- 
cussions in the council and perhaps have a voice in them.^^ Ross 
decided to attend merely as an observer. At Spring Place he 
met Judge Brown, a prominent man of the tribe and a member 
of the National Committee, a branch of the Cherokee legislative 
body. As they rode on together Judge Brown jestingly re- 
marked that they were going to put Ross in purgatory when 
he arrived at Amohe. When the young merchant expressed 
objections to such a fate Judge Brown explained that he meant 
they were going to run him for a member of the National Com- 
mittee. He was not entirely unprepared, therefore, when soon 
after the council was convened he was called in and Major 
Ridge, speaker of the Council, announced to him that he had 
been appointed a member of the National Committee.^® 

The discussions in the council revealed strong opposition, 
not only to removal, but also to the cession of any more land. 
"If the western band was not happy where they were let them 
return to the eastern nation," was an argument heard on all 
sides. If there had been a sentiment for removal the previous 
year as Jackson had affirmed, there was no evidence of it 
at this time. When the commission arrived at the Agency, 
June 20, only representatives from Arkansas were present to 
meet them, and it was three weeks before a sufficient representa- 
tion could be obtained to open negotiations. The Arkansas 
members who had everything to gain and nothing to lose were 

" Composed of General Jackson, Governor McMinn and General Meri- 
weather. 

'^The chiefs never conclude a very important business before they find 
out the popular sentiment of their people. Agent Meigs to Secretary of 
War, Nov. 8, 1816. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, II, p. 117. 

^»McKenney and Hall, rndian Tribes of North America, Vol. Ill, p. 299 
(1870). 



30 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

graciously compliant; the Eastern Nation firmly opposed re- 
moval or a cession of territory. In a talk which he made to 
them General Jackson took the ground that the Cherokee dele- 
gation of 1809 had arranged with President Jefferson for an 
exchange of lands east of the Mississippi River for lands west 
of it, and that the time had now come when the exchange must 
be made. In order to fix the boundaries of the western country 
so as to prevent white people from settling within them it was 
necessary for all who expected to remove at any future time 
to declare it now, as after the bounds were marked and the lands 
laid off they would not otherwise be allowed to settle there. 
The United States would provide the means for removing to 
those who wished to go and to the poorer classes would furnish 
implements of husbandry, arms and ammunition for hunting 
and would allow them reasonable compensation for improve- 
ments. Those who preferred to remain might do so by be- 
coming citizens of the United States. "As free men you have 
now to make your choice," he declared. "Those who go west 
go to a country belonging to the United States. There your 
father, the President, can never be urged by his white children 
to ask their red brothers, the Cherokees, for any of the lands 
laid off at that place for them." As for the eastern lands he 
declared that the right of possession or hunting was the only 
right guaranteed to the Cherokee Nation by former treaties."" 
The Cherokees chose Elijah Hicks, and John Ross to frame 
a reply to the commissioners. Going into the forest they drew 
up a memorial with careful deliberation, Ross doing the writing. 
This memorial having been signed by sixty-seven chiefs was 
presented by the council to General Jackson. It stated that the 
great body of the Cherokees desired to remain in the land of 
their birth where they were rapidly advancing in civilization. 
They did not wish to revert to their original conditions and 
surroundings. They prayed, therefore, that the question of 
removal be pressed no farther and that they be allowed to re- 
main peaceably in the land of their fathers."^ No attention 
was paid to the memorial and a treaty prepared by General 

^ Jackson's Talk to the Cherokees, 1817. Payne Mss. 7, 31-44. 
21 Payne Mss. 7, p. 45. 



John Ross Beginnixg His Public Career 31 

Jackson was signed by the Arkansas representation and by 
twent^'-two of the chiefs, though not the most representative 
ones, of the Eastern Nation who were susceptible to Jackson's 
influence. 

Great preparations were promptly started to incline the 
Cherokees to removal. A special agent was sent to assist Mr. 
INIeigs and when the work otill did not go fast enough to suit 
Governor ^Mc^Nlinn, he himself went to the Nation and canvassed 
for emigrants. Although bribes passed freely and intimidation 1 
was unsparingly used'' to get Indians to come in and enroll 
for removal, the governor of Tennessee, who was notoriously , 
self-interested in the project, was doomed to disappointment 
in the final results. By the last of June about seven hundred 
had enrolled and several boats were ready to descend the river 
bearing them to the western country."^ But they did not 
represent the sentiments of the nation. The Cherokees as a 
body were opposed to emigration and as the summer wore away, 
hostility towards the treaty became more and more bitter. 
Those who enrolled were ostracized and in some cases cruelly '"T 
persecuted. The council which met in the fall deposed and de- > 
prived of an}' further authority in the tribe Toochelah, the 
Second Chief. It took his commission from him and appointed 
in his place Charles Hicks a leader in the opposition party. 
The body even went further and passed the resolution that, "We 
consider ourselves a free and distinct nation and the National 
Government has no polity over us further than a friendly in- 
tercourse in trade,"'* thus setting forth the earliest formula- 
tion of their opinion concerning their political status, a ques- 
tion which was to be settled more than a decade later by a 
decision of the Supreme Court. '^ 

So active Avas the opposition to the treaty that when a 
delegation of twelve Cherokees appeared at Washington in 
1819'*' Secretary Calhoun entered into a new treaty which ef- 
fectually put an end to removal for the time being. By it 

''Cong. Doc, 98, Xo. 127, pp. 52-83 (18th Cong.). 
^ Niles' Register 13, p. 74, Letter of Agent Meigs. 
^Exec. Doc. 98, No. 127, p. 76. 
^ In the Case of Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia. 
=»Xiles' Register 16, p. 158. 



32 John Ross axd the Chehokee Indians 

the Cherokees agreed to cede to the United States a tract of 
land at least as extensive as that to which it was entitled under 
the treaty of 1817 and consented to the distribution of an- 
nuities in the proportion of two to one in favor of the eastern 
nation; the United States agreed to dispense with taking the 
census of the treaty of 1817, and obligated itself to remove 
intruders from the Cherokee Nation.'^ 

John Ross was a member of this delegation and faith- 
fully stood guard over tribal, as opposed to personal, interests. 
After the first draft of a treaty had been arranged, jNIajor 
Walker, one of the delegation, with a view to "feathering his 
own nest" proposed an additional grant of land to be made in 
such a way as to benefit him personally but to cause distinct 
loss to the Cherokee Nation. Ross saw through this scheme and 
promptly thwarted it, much to the chagrin of Walker, who, 
however, said nothing at the time. The night before the party 
was to leave Washington, Ross was writing at a late hour 
in his room which was also occupied by his brother Lewis and 
James Brown, who had already retired. Elijah Hicks occupied 
the adjoining room. Judge Martin, another member of the 
delegation, seeing a light in the room as he returned from the 
theatre, went in and was giving Mr. Ross an account of the play 
when suddenly the door was opened and in rushed Walker with 
eyes glaring and face flushed, a brickbat in one hand and a 
drawn sword in the other. Rushing upon Ross he shouted, "I 
am come to whip you!" at the same time flinging the brick at 
him and narrowly missing his head. Ross, who had tilted back 
in his chair to avoid the missile, slipped and fell just as Walker 
was upon him with his sword. Quick as a flash he was on his 
feet, knife in hand ready to strike blow for blow when both men 
were seized and separated b}^ Judge Martin and Lewis Ross. 
Ross was thrust through the door into the next room, while the 
drunken Walker was hustled off" to his own quarters and put to 
bed. The two men met at Baltimore the next day, but neither 
then nor ever after mentioned the incident. They met after- 
wards as if nothing had happened and so the unfortunate 

" 7 United States Statutes at Large, p. 195. 



JoHx Ross Begixxixg His Public Career 33 

affair died away- Walker from then on drank more heavily and 
gradually lost his prestige among his people."* 

The Cherokees now earnestly addressed themselves to fur- 
ther national improvements. Their hopes and ambitions ran 
high. In a circular letter to the adjoining states in 1813, they 
declared that many of their youth of both sexes "had acquired 
such knowledge of letters as to show the most incredulous that 
our mental powers are not, by nature, inferior to yours, and 
we look forward to a period of time when it may be said 'this 
artist, this mathematician, this astronomer is a Cherokee' !"'^ 
There was an increasing desire among them to have their chil- 
dren educated. The treaty of 1819 contained a provision for 
a reservation of land twelve miles square to be sold by the 
United States, the proceeds to be invested by the President in 
stocks and bonds and the income applied in the manner best 
calculated to promote education among the Cherokees east of 
the Mississippi. ^° In 1822 seven Cherokee boys were being 
educated in a mission school at Cornwall, Connecticut. Of these 
John Ridge, Elias Boudinot and Richard Brown were to play 
a prominent part in the politics of their nation. 

In 1817 missionary activities among the southern tribes 
increased. In less than ten years they had eight churches and 
thirteen schools among the Cherokees. These schools were very 
well attended. Children were taught not only reading, arith- 
metic and writing but also the agricultural arts. "In the 
latter," says one who visited the Cherokee Nation in 1818, "the 
boys take the different branches in weekly rotation; and on 
Monday morning such as are to turn out to labor are called 
b}' naming their avocations of labor, as plow boys, hoe boys, 
axe boys, to which call they answer and appear with the 
greatest cheerfulness and alacrity. The girls are taught in 

^ Payne Mss. 2, p. 450. 
^Niles' Register 4, p. 125. 
** Niks' Register 26, p. 102. 



34 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

similar method, their occupations being suited to their sex. 
They are instructed in the use of the needle, the art of spin- 
ning, knitting and all household business and it is stated that 
among them are some gentle young women who would not dis- 
grace more polished society."'^ While progress in the academic 
branches was slow at first the industrial training met with eager 
interest and wrought such results that village life was almost 
completely abandoned, the inhabitants scattering out and 
taking up farms. As the land was held in common a farm was 
in reach of any member of the tribe who had the energy to 
clear it and put it in cultivation. By 1822 most families 
cultivated from ten to forty acres and raised corn, rye, oats, 
wheat and cotton. The women spun and wove their own cotton 
and woolen cloth and blankets and knitted all the stockings used 
by their families.'" 

By 1826 the mass of the Cherokees lived in cabins, some of 
which were built of hewn logs and were floored and furnished 
with chimneys, while well-to-do slave owners built comfortable 
two-story houses, some of which were really elegant, and were 
living in much the same style as the white planters of the 
same economic standing in the south. Except in remote moun- 
tain regions, the hunting shirt, leggings and moccasins, along 
with old customs and religion, were fast disappearing under 
the influence of commerce, education and missionary zeal. "It 
no longer remains a doubt," wrote a missionary from Brainard, 
Tennessee, as early as 1812, "whether the Indians of America 
can be civilized. The Cherokees have gone too far in the 
pleasant paths of civilization to return to the rough and un- 
beaten track of savage life."^^ 

Political advancement kept pace with economic and educa- 
tional progress. By 1820 the government was well organized 
and administered. It had undergone considerable change since 
its organization in 1808. The Light Horse, or Regulators, 
provided for at that time served their purpose well and were not 
dispensed with until 1825 when district officers made their ser- 

=1 Niles' Register 14, p. 390. 

*2 Payne Mss. 6 and 7; Morse, Indian Report, Hicks to Calhoun, 1822. 

^ Niles' Register 20, p. 102. 



John Ross Beginning His Public Career 35 

vices no longer necessary. In 1815 the Council provided for 
a standing committee whose business it was at first to look after 
claims and adjust financial differences. This committee, ap- 
pointed by the Council of Chiefs for two years, developed into 
the upper house of the legislature, while the General Council 
became the lower house. Thus was a bicameral system worked 
out by an aboriginal tribe groping towards the light of a civi- 
lized form of government. The former body, composed of 
thirteen members including its president with a clerk to record 
its proceedings, had the power, as it was later developed, to 
control and regulate financial affairs, inspect the treasurer's 
books^^ and to acknowledge claims. The council under the old 
system had been large and the responsibility of each chief tri- 
fling. In 1817 it was reorganized; useless members were 
stricken off and a standing body of legislators was created. This 
body was to assemble in October of each year at New Echota, 
hereafter to be the permanent seat of government. By 1826 it 
consisted of thirty-three members including its speaker. It had 
power to legislate and fill vacancies in its own body and in the 
committee. The principal chief and second chief were elected 
by joint ballot of both houses. In 1820 the Council determined 
to divide the nation in eight districts in each of which was lo- 
cated a council house where court was held twice yearly. Dis- 
trict officers administered all business purely local. A code of 
laws was developed regulating taxes, internal improvements, 
the payment of debts, the liquor traffic and marriages; the 
franchise was limited to Cherokee citizens and punishments were 
defined for crimes and misdemeanors.'^^ 

In 1819, on the removal of John Mcintosh, John Ross be- 
came president of the National Committee which position he 
filled successfully for eight years. With other prominent and 
progressive men of the Cherokee Nation he recognized that in 
order to realize their national ambition the Cherokees must 
maintain their tribal unity and integrity. In order to prevent 

'^A treasurer was first appointed in 1819 to take charge of annuities. 
Payne Mss. 2, p. 379. 

^ Payne Mss. 3, p. 379, Letter of Ridge to Gallatin, 1826; also. Vols. 
6 and 7; American State Papers, Indian A fairs, II, 279-283; McKenney's 
Letter, Ibid, p. 657; Drake's Indiam, pp. 437, 438 (1880). 



36 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

■ a repetition of the treaty of 1817 the Council adopted a reso- 
I lution making it a death penalty for individuals to sign a treaty 
ceding Cherokee land. Further cession must be made by the 
National Committee and the National Council acting together. 
It appears that in 1826 the organization of the government 
had been pretty thoroughly accomplished and the tribe was not 
unprepared for the next step which was taken by the council 
in its resolution providing for a convention to draw up a 
written constitution. They were laying large plans also for 
improving educational facilities: a national library was under 
contemplation and the best method of establishing a Cherokee 
national school s3'Stem was being discussed by such Cherokee 
citizens as Major Ridge, Major Walker, Elijah Hicks, the 
Vanns and the Rosses, all considered men of ability and refine- 
ment even in Washington. 

An event occurred in 1821 which profoundly influenced the 
whole future history of the tribe. A young mixed-blood Chero- 
kee, known among the whites as George Guess and among his 
own people as Sikwayi, invented the Cherokee alphabet. Of 
the father of Sequoyah very little is definitely known. On his 
mother's side he was of good family, being a nephew of Oconos- 
tota, a famous war chief of pre-Revolutionary times. His 
early youth was spent at Chota,^*' the ancient peace town of the 
Cherokees, amid the bloody scenes of Indian wars during the 
Revolution. He never attended school and never learned to 
read, write or speak the English language. Like most Indian 
youths of his time he hunted and trapped and lived a wild, free 
life among his native mountains and valleys. Possessed of con- 
siderable mechanical skill, he liked especially to work in silver. 
When about forty years of age a chance conversation called 
his attention to the white man's ability to communicate thought 
by means of writing. Naturally of a contemplative turn of 
mind he reflected upon the possibility of working out a similar 
system for his own people and finally determined to attempt it. 
After years of patient effort, in spite of repeated failures and 
the discouragement and the ridicule of friends and relatives, 
he finally evolved a Cherokee syllabary, which was so simple 
and so remarkably adapted to the language that in order to 
^ Near Fort Loudon. 



John Ross Beginnixg His Public Career 37 

read and write it was necessary only to learn the eighty-six 
characters of which it was composed. The mass of the people 
immediately recognized its possibilities and in a few months 
thousands who could not speak English and had despaired of 
acquiring an education were learning to read and write in their 
ovm tongue. With one accord the whole Cherokee Nation 
seemed to resolve itself into a great Indian academy, old men 
and children as well as the youth and the middle-aged, address- 
ing themselves to the mastery of the system. As soon as one 
had learned it he taught another. Thus almost every fireside 
became a school and every man, woman and child, either teacher 
or pupil. Even at the post office, in the public houses, or by 
the roadside, instruction was given and received, "so that with- 
in a few months without school or other expense of time or 
money, the Cherokees were able to read and write in their own 
language."^^ 

When, three years later, b}^ an act of the National Council, 
a printing press was set up at New Echota and the Cherokee 
Phoenix, a weekly paper printed in both English and Cherokee, 
was started with Elias Boudinot, just returned from school in 
Cornwall, Connecticut, as editor, the most illiterate members 
of the tribe were able to read the proceedings of their legis- 
lative body and keep in touch with the progress of their na- 
tion. Soon the Bible was translated into Cherokee, and later 
hymn books and textbooks followed. An active correspondence 
sprang up between the eastern and western nations, for Se- 
quoyah had a true missionary zeal and carried his inventions 
to Arkansas where he took up his permanent abode in 1823. 
In the fall of that year, the Cherokee Council, in recognition 
of his merits, awarded a silver medal bearing a commemorative 
inscriptions in both languages. ^^ The president of the National 

"McKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes of North America, I, p. 46 (1858). 

^Indian Treaties, p. 425 (1837). A very interesting account of the 
life of Sequoyah written by a full-blood Cherokee, translated into English 
by another Cherokee and passed upon by a Committee of the National 
Council is found in Payne Mss. 2, pp. 224-249. 

Other accounts are found in Mooney's Myths of the Cherokees, pp. 107- 
110; Phillip's Sequoyah, Harper's Magazine, September, 1870, pp. 542-548; 
Pilling, J. C, Bibliography of Iroquois Languages, pp. 72, 73; Foster, 
Sequoyah, (1885). 



38 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

Committee was commissioned to bear this token of xegard to 
him and once more John Ross crossed the Father of Waters ^ 
and journeyed to his tribsmen on the Arkansas. While his 
second mission was not attended with as many wild adventures S 
and harrowing experiences, as was the one made fourteen years 
earlier, it was full of interest and importance as it gave him 
opportunity to investigate the nature of the country and the 
condition of the people in the territory to which the Federal 
Government had been offering many inducements to the Eastern 
Cherokees to remove. That his impressions of the country 
were not favorable is evidenced by the fact that he returned 
home to use every effort for strengthening the government and 
welding the Cherokees into a strong, united nation in order that 
they might present a solid front of resistance to any further 
project for removal. 



CHAPTER IV 

Georgia's Growing Demand for Indian Lands 

Georgia, meanwhile, as her population increased and 
spread from the coast plain up the fertile river valleys, year 
by year pushing back the line of the frontier further into the 
highlands, found an ever growing demand on the part of her 
citizens for the removal of the aborigines. The Creeks and 
Cherokees, particularly, they regarded as serious obstacles to 
progress. By 1823 demand for their removal from the state 
had become insistent. The Federal Government in 1802 had 
entered into an agreement with Georgia to extinguish, for the 
use of Georgia, the Indian title to land lying within the state 
as soon as it could be done on peaceable and reasonable terms. ^ 
A select committee, of which George R. Gilmer" was chairman, 
submitted a report to the House of Representatives on Janu- 
ary 7, 1822, on the question whether or not the United States 
was keeping her part of the compact. It was the opinion of 
the committee that she was not so doing.^ As a matter of fact 
the largest Indian cessions had been obtained in other states, 
where, as soon as the natives relinquished their title to the land, 
it became part of the public domain. Acting on the report of 
the Gilmer committee. Congress appropriated $30,000 for the 
extinguishment of Indian land titles within the limit of Georgia* 
and Calhoun promptly appointed a commissioner to negotiate 
with the Cherokees for a cession of a part or all of their 
eastern land. 

The Cherokee Council, hearing of this action of Congress, 
passed a resolution in its autumn cession, declaring unanimously 
and with one voice, the determination to hold no more treaties 
with the United States for the purpose of making cessions of 
lands, being resolved not to dispose of even one foot of ground. ' 
"But upon any question, not relating to a land cession", the 
resolution stated, "we will at all times during the session of 

^ Amer. State Papers, Public Lands, I, p. 135. 
' Later governor of Georgia. 

^American State Papers, Indian Affairs, II, p. 257. 
^ 3 C7. S. Statutes at Large, p. 688. 



40 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

the National Council at Echota, Newtown, receive the United 
States commissioners or agents with friendship and cordiality 
and will ever keep bright the chain of peace and friendship 
which links the Cherokee Nation and the Government of the 
United States."^ The Council sent copies of the resolutions to 
the Secretary of War and to the commissioners with the assur- 
ance that it would be entirely useless to put the United States 
to the trouble and expense of negotiating another treaty of ces- 
sion. The commissioners remonstrated with the chiefs and 
threatened them with the indignation of the Great Father at 
Washington who would shake them off if they persisted in their 
obstinacy." So determined and bitter was the opposition, how- 
ever, that the matter was allowed to rest until the following 
year. Meanwhile a vacancy having occurred at the Cherokee 
agency, the Secretary of War appointed to fill it Joseph 
McMinn whose advocacy for removal was well known. If 
prompted to this course by the expectation that the Tennes- 
seean's familiarity with Cherokee affairs would prove advan- 
tageous to the commissioners in negotiating a treaty, Mr. Cal- 
houn was reckoning amiss. The Cherokees both feared and 
hated the ex-governor for his disgraceful part in the treaties of 
1817 and 1819. 

In spite of the Cherokee resolutions of the previous year 
the War Department was so optimistic that aversion to cession 
might be "conquered by a little perseverance and judicious 
management'" that it allowed the Board of Commissioners to 
be provided with about $35,000 to aid them in conducting their 
negotiations. The Department also instructed them to coop- 
erate with commissioners appointed by Georgia to press claims 
of that state arising under former treaties, and to proceed to 
the Cherokee Nation in the fall of 1823. The Federal Commis- 
sioners, Campbell and Meriweather,^ arrived at New Echota 
October 4, to find the Cherokee Council in regular session and 
representatives from Georgia already on the ground. Agent 

" Payne Mss. 2, pp. 501-503. 

8 Ibid, p. 504. 

■'Abel, Indian Consolidation, p. 324; Indian Office Manuscript Records, 
Calhoun to CampbeU, March 17, 1823. 

' Both Georgia men. 



Georgia's Growing Demand for Indian Lands 41 

McMinn promptly notified the Council of their arrival and 
was informed that the Grand Council was disposed to receive 
and be introduced to the Board according to the customs and 
ceremonies of the Cherokee Nation. Thereupon, accompanied 
by the state commissioners, they were conducted to the council 
house and presented in due form to the chiefs, the Council, 
and the committee in joint session. Major Ridge, speaker of 
the Council, addressed them in terms of congratulation and 
friendship and was answered b}'^ Mr, Campbell, who paid a high 
compliment to Cherokee civilization. After this auspicious be- 
ginning the commissioners showed no inclination to haste in 
opening formal negotiations. Time and deliberation were es- 
sential to the judicious expenditure of the appropriation 
placed at their disposal and the building up of a party in the 
Cherokee Nation favorable to cession. This last could be done 
only by detaching the more susceptible chiefs from the strong 
body of opposition and splitting the Council into factions. It 
was, therefore, somewhat to their discomfiture when they were 
called upon by the President of the Committee, two days later, 
for a full statement of their instructions from the President of 
the United States relating to their business with the Cherokees. 
After some hesitation on the part of the commissioners formal 
negotiations finally began and, by request of the Cherokees,'' 
were conducted by both sides in writing. "A novel procedure", 
undoubtedly it was, as Mr. Campbell observed, this "corres- 
pondence in writing conducted with a government regularly 
organized, composed of Indians. "^^ 

The negotiations are remarkable for two things : first, the 
illogical arguments presented by the representatives of the 
United States ; second, the ability and strength with which the 
Cherokees met these arguments and advanced cogent reasons 
why a further cession or removal could not be considered by 
them. The commissioners urged the plea that the white people 
were so cramped for land they were driven from friends and 
connections to foreign lands, while the Cherokees had more 

"Payne Mss. 2, 505. Commissioner Campbell reported to the Secretary 
of War that it was the desire of both parties. The Cherokees claimed it 
was at their request. 

1* Campbell to Calhoun, Amer. State Papers, Indian A fairs, II, p. 464. 



42 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

land in Georgia than they needed; this was unjust; the Great 
Father of the universe intended the earth equally for his white 
and red children. The Cherokees replied that, as to the in- 
tentions of the Great Father, they did not know, but it was 
quite evident that neither individual nor nation had ever re- 
spected the principle. Meeting the arguments for removal, 
they declared that the unfortunate part of the tribe which had 
emigrated to the west had suffered severely in the new country 
from sickness, wars and other calamities, and many of them 
would return if the}^ could do so; had it been their desire to 
go west they would have embraced opportunities formerly of- 
fered them ; it was not their desire ; they loved the soil which 
had given them birth and continued to nourish them. Pressed 
further for a cession of land, since they would not consider re- 
moval, they declared that the limits of their nation were small, 
embracing mountains, hills, and poor lands which could never 
be cultivated ; the Cherokees had once possessed an extensive 
country ; in order to gratify the wishes of their neighbors, they 
had granted to the President cession after cession, until their 
limits had become circumscribed. Experience had taught them 
that a small cession would never satisfy the white man. There- 
fore they had come to the unalterable conclusion never to part 
_with another foot of land.^^ 

As negotiations proceeded and the Cherokees remained 
firm, the talk of the commissioners grew harsh and threatening. 
They denied the right of the Indians to the soil they inhabited 
claiming that it had been forfeited by their hostilities to the 
United States during and after the War of the Revolution. 
Jackson's argument of 1817, that the Indians were tenants at 
the will of the state within whose boundaries their nation lay,^^ 
was then renewed. 

But arguments, cajolery, threats and bribery proving of 
no avail the commissioners, finally reduced to desperation, de- 
termined upon a keen stroke of policy. It was a delicate busi- 
ness to be handled by an agent of rare ability and skill. A 
man who seemed to fill all the requirements was found in the 

^American State Papers, Indian A fairs, II, 468-69. 
" Ibid. 



Georgia's Growing Dkmand for Indian Lands 43 

person of William Mcintosh, a Creek chief. He enjoyed the 
confidence and respect of tlie Clierokees who called him Beloved 
Brother. He frequently attended their councils, where he was 
always welcome, and occupied the "white bench" or seat of 
honor, reserved for distinguished guests. He really occupied 
an official position in the Cherokee councils, being a delegate 
from the Creek Council with the power to examine into and 
settle controversies arising between the two nations, an office 
established during earlier times when the sovithern tribes^^ had 
a common agent. His appearance at Echota at this time, 
therefore, would excite no distrust in the minds of the Chero- 
kees, for, although it was generally known that a spirit of 
peculation was abroad among the Creeks, no suspicion had 
as yet been attached to General jNIcIntosh. 

Council had been in session about three weeks when a mes- 
senger brought word that General Mcintosh and several Creek 
chiefs would arrive at the council ground the following day. 
Preparations were promptly made to receive them with suitable 
distinction. Formal greetings and congratulations had barely 
been exchanged when the purpose of the delegation was re- 
vealed in a note^* from their leader to John Ross asking, in 
broken English, for his private opinion on the question of 
a treaty. In case Ross could see his way clear to favor it, 
the dusky general would promise to make the commissioners 
give him $2000, and Isaac McCoy^^ and Charles Hicks, each 
$2000 for a present. And "no one shall know it", he assured 
them. He then added, "I will get you the amount before the 
treat}'^ is signed, and if you have any friend you want him to 
receive, he shall receive". Mcintosh himself was to have $7000 
for his services.^*' 

Upon receipt of this communication Ross, hastily calling 
a meeting of his most trusted associates, laid the case before 
them. Their anger and surprise were equal to his own. After 
consultation a plan of action was determined upon. By re- 
vealing the plot of bribery in General Council in such way as 

"Cherokee, Creek, Choctaws and Chickasaws. Payne Mss 2, p. 511. 
" Bearing date of Oct. 23. - 
" Clerk of the Council. 
^« Payne Mss. 2, p. 513. 



JJ< JOHX Ross AND THE ChEROKEE InDIANS 

to completely discredit and discountenance both the Mcintosh 
party and the commissioners they hoped to set a precedent 
for a high standard of political integrity, for the Cherokees 
who, in times past, had been known to show too much suscep- 
tibility to bribery. At the same time they hoped to discourage 
an}' further attempts on the part of the United States to se- 
cure cessions of land from them. Prompt action was taken that 
very evening. Ridge and McCoy had a confidential talk with 
the unsuspecting Mcintosh to ascertain whether the course he 
had proposed was with the knowledge and sanction of the com- 
missioners. They found that it was with their knowledge and 
sanction. After suggesting that the Cherokees, Creeks, Choc- 
taws and Chickasaws should surrender all of their lands east of 
the Mississippi and settle in the west under one government, 
Mcintosh proposed that he himself attend a joint session of the 
two houses and address them in favor of compliance with the 
propositions of the commissioners. He then added that he was 
certain that if the Committee would fall in with his views and 
say that they despaired of being able to hold out against the 
United States the old Path Killer could readily be brought to 
yield. Pie concluded b}'^ trying to dazzle them with an account 
of all he had gained by former treaties both for himself and 
others, "all knowledge of which was buried in oblivion".^' 

The Committee in secret session early next morning resolved 
to convene both houses in General Council that day on "special 
and important business" and an invitation was sent General 
Mcintosh to attend. He was received with the usual respect 
and deference, yet seemed ill at ease. The air of expectancy 
and suppressed excitement which prevailed the council chamber 
seemed to warn him that all was not well. The meeting having 
been opened by Major Ridge, speaker of the Council, Mr. Ross 
arose to explain its purpose. He began by reviewing his own 
past services and obligations to the Cherokees, expressing 
his appreciation of the trust and confidence with which his 
people had honored him. He assured them their trust and 
confidence had been sacredly observed for he considered a trai- 
tor more despicable than the meanest reptile that crawls upon 
" Ibid 



Georgia's Growing Demand for Indian Lands 45_ 

the earth; as for himself, lie would rather live in the direst 
poverty than to have his reputation sullied by the acceptance 
of a bribe. "It has now become my duty," he concluded, "to 
inform you that a gross contempt is offered my character as 
well as that of the General Council. This letter which I hold 
in my hand will speak for itself. Fortunately the author has 
mistaken my character and sense of honor." Handing the let- 
ter to the clerk of the Council, he took his seat. 

Over the council house there fell an ominous silence which 
was presently broken by the voice of the clerk who, sentence by 
sentence, read the note aloud, and interpreted it in Cherokee 
in order that everyone present might understand it. When it 
was finished, the venerable Path Killer, tall, erect, and dignified, 
his flashing eye alone revealing his deep emotion, arose to ex- 
press his grief and astonishment, that one whom he had trusted 
as an honest chief, and loved and confided in as a brother had 
been willing to betray his brothers, the Cherokees, for a hand- 
ful of gold. The offense could not be condoned. All affection 
must expire before such a breach of trust, and the Council 
should deal with him as the traitor he had proved himself to be. 

By the time the aged chief had finished, the full significance 
of the situation had dawned upon the discredited chief and the 
outraged Council. The former rose to stammer out a lame 
reply, but his voice was drowned by angry accusations and 
harsh epithets. The Council, forthwith, proceeded to pass a 
resolution deposing Mcintosh and debarring him from ever 
having any part in the Cherokee councils. Taking advantage 
of the excitement aroused by the dramatic incidents of the 
morning, the discredited chief escaped from the council house, 
mounted his horse and rode in hot haste from the scene of his 
disgrace.^* 

A communication from the Cherokee Council to the Creek 
Nation the following day simply states, "The commissioners 
have this day departed without a foot of land, and we wish you 
prosperity in all your national concerns".'^ Mr. Campbell re- 

«A full account of the Mcintosh affair is given in Payne Mss. 2, 
pp. 509-520. 

i» Payne Mss. 7, p. 61. 



46 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

ported to the War Office the failure of the commissioners to 
consummate a treaty, merely mentioning the fact that a dele- 
gation of Creeks headed by General Mcintosh had visited them. 
He added that the prospect of securing a cession from the 
Creeks was more favorable, but made no mention of the Mcin- 
tosh incident.^" 

Although the Cherokees had stood by their determination 
to part with no more land the incidents of the past few weeks 
had aroused among them such feelings of uncertainty and un- 
easiness that the Council, before adjourning, appointed a dele- 
gation to Washington to plead with the President personally 
against further requests for land cessions. 

^American State Papers, Indian Affairs, II, p. 464. 



CHAPTER V 

Georgia's Hostility to the Cherokees 

The Cherokee delegation, composed of John Ross, Major 
Ridge, George Lowrey and Elijah Hicks, set out to Washington 
promptly on the adjournment of Council. They travelled on 
horseback carrying whatever was necessary to the journey in 
saddlebags strapped behind their saddles. The trip up to the 
capital at this time of year was not an easy one. But as they 
rode two and two over wind-swept ridges and through snow- 
covered valleys, or, at night, sat by the fire of the wayside 
"public stop", they never tired of discussing the questions of 
the day, particularly those which concerned the welfare of 
their own nation. For several years they had been associated 
together in the Cherokee Council, knew each other well, and 
trusted each other implicitly. They were all men of affairs 
also, and although one of them could not read or write in Eng- 
lish, he had acquired much useful information and was keen and 
astute in managing the political affairs of his people.^ 
Ross was doubtless the best educated one of the four. Besides 
his two years' experience in the Academy at Maryville he had 
read many valuable books which he found in his father's library 
and his letters prove that he wrote very clearly, though his 
style was somewhat formal and stilted. As to personal ap- 
pearance, they all possessed the independent, dignified bear- 
ing which has always distinguished Cherokee men reared in the 
mountains, and their natural politeness and courtesy marked 
them as gentlemen, in spite of the fact that their forbears, 
a generation or two before, had been considered savages. The 
selection of these men to represent their nation in its plea to 
the Great White Father at Washington undoubtedly shows 
discrimination and judgment on the part of the tribe. 

Arriving in Washington the middle of January the dele- 
gation learned, to their disappointment, that they could not 
confer personally with the President but that any business which 
they wished to transact with the executive must pass through 

^ Major Ridge. 



48 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

the War Office. When they presented their credentials to 
Secretary Calhoun he sounded the keynote of the Federal policy 
by asking them if they had come to make a further cession of 
land. Their answer was in the form of a memorial in which 
they earnestly urged that their nation was laboring under pe- 
culiar disadvantages arising from the repeated appropriations 
of Congress to hold treaties with them; such action retarded 
national improvement by unsettling the minds and prospects of 
the citizens. They repeated their determination to part with 
no more land, as the limits fixed by the treaty of 1819 left 
them territory barely adequate to their comfort and conven- 
ience; the Cherokees were rapidly increasing in population, 
rendering it the duty of the nation to preserve, unimpaired to 
posterity, the lands of their ancestors. For these reasons, they 
asked that some other arrangement be made whereby Georgia's 
demand for land might be satisfied." 

The Secretary of War, in reply, laid great stress upon the 
Georgia compact and upon the zealous desire of the President 
to carry it out, a distinct society or nation within the limits 
of a state being "incompatible with our system".^ He then set 
forth in glowing terms the benefits that would result to the 
Cherokees from an exchange of their country for one beyond 
the annoying encroachments of civilization. The delegation re- 
minded him that the United States was under compact to ex- 
tinguish the Indian claims only on peaceable and reasonable 
terms; as for incompatibility with the system of the United 
States, the Indians were the original inhabitants of the country, 
and were not willing to allow the sovereignty of any state with- 
in the boundaries of their domain; they had never promised to 
cede their lands to the Federal Government, but it had guaran- 
teed the land to them ; they were not yet sufficiently civilized 
to cease being an independent community and become a terri- 
tory or state within the Union; removal would at least retard 
their advancement in civilization since it would take them some 
time to adjust themselves to new environments.* The Indians 

'^American State Papers, Indian A fairs, II, p. 473; Cong. Doc. 91, 
No. 63. 

* Third Cong. Doc. 91, Sen. Doc. 63. 

* American State Papers, Indian Affairs, II, p. 474. 



Georgia's Hostility to the Cherokees 49 

had justice and logic on their side and argued their case so ~J 
cogently that even the astute Secretary of War was unable to j 
refute them. At the suggestion of the President copies of the 
correspondence were sent to the Georgia delegation in Congress 
and to George M. Troup, Governor of the state. Troup was an 
extreme state's rights man who represented the rich planter 
population. He had been elected governor of Georgia with the 
avowed policy of ridding the state of Indian occupanc}'. 

The Georgia congressmen protested against the diplomatic 
courtesy shown the Indian delegates, and complained that the 
civilizing policy of the United States tended to fasten the In- 
dians more firmly on the soil.^ The hot-headed governor, after 
censuring the weak and dilatory policy of the Federal Govern- 
ment towards the Indians in the past, and accusing the white 
men in the Cherokee Nation of influencing them against removal, 
declared that the fee simple of the lands lay in Georgia and that 
the Indians were tenants at her will; Georgia demanded the 
removal of these tenants who must be given to understand that 
the United States, at the expense of bloodshed, must assist 
Georgia to occupy her lands. 

President Monroe, in his message March, 1824, defended 
the course which the national executive had pursued towards 
the Indians. He advocated removal beyond the Mississippi but 
not by force, and expressed the opinion that the Indian title 
was not affected by the Georgia compact, the expression, "at 
the expense of the United States as long as the same can be 
done on reasonable terms", being full proof of the distinct un- 
derstanding of both parties to the compact. The Indians had 
a right, he thought, to the territory in the disposal of which 
they were to be considered as free agents.*' 

A select committee from the House of Representatives, of 
which John Forsythe was chairman, reported on this message 
April 15, after expressing the opinion that the guarantee of 
lands before 1802 granted occupancy title only, and resolved 
that if peaceable acquisition were not now possible the Indians 
must be removed by force or the United States obtain from 

= Niles' Register 26, 275. Hardin's Life of George M. Trouf, 206-218. 
^ Richardson's Messages of the Presidents, II, pp. 234-237. 



50 John Ross and the Chekokee Indians 

Georgia consent to some other plan; otherwise she might be 
put in the position of either seeing the Cherokees annihilated 
or defending them against United States citizens," 

Governor Troup was provoked to a fresh outburst of wrath 
by the President's message and by the discussions in Congress, 
but when a fresh appropriation was made the last of May to 
extinguish Indian land titles in Georgia^ he quieted down for 
a time, confining his views on state's rights and the Indian ques- 
tion to the state legislature. Here, however, he hotly declared 
that "a state of things so unnatural and fruitful of evil as an 
independent government of a semibarbarous people existing 
within the limits of a state could not long continue, and wise 
counsel must direct it, that relations which could not be main- 
tained in peace should be dissolved before an occasion should 
L occur to break that peace.'"* In his message of 1825 he recom- 
mended the legislature to adopt energetic measures for ridding 
the Cherokee Nation of all white people excepting only such as 
were necessarily employed by the United States to regulate 
commerce with the tribe. He also recommended the legislature 
to extend the laws of Georgia over the Cherokee Nation.^" The 
Cherokees, however, held fast to their contention for national 
rights and when Georgia attempted to send surveyors through 
their nation to lay out the course of a canal the Council re- 
fused to permit it. "No individual state shall be allowed to 
make internal improvements within the sovereign limits of the 
Cherokee Nation", was resolved by the Council of 1826.^^ This 
exasperated Governor Troup, who, however, was forced to bide 
his time, his attention, at this time being more particularly 
directed towards the removal of the Creeks and Seminoles. 

Thus far, it would seem the Cherokees had gained the best 
of the controversy. With firmness and determination they had 
maintained their right to the soil and the sovereignty of their 

' Niles' Register 26, 275-276. 

'4 United States Statutes at Large, p. 36. 

•Hardin's Life of George M. Troup, p. 469. 

"Ibid, pp. 411, 412. 

" Payne Mss. 7. 



Georgia's Hostility to the Cherokees 51 

nation ; the delegation at Washington had won many friends 
for their cavise in Congress. But the Cherokees did not permit 
themselves to be betrayed by overconfidence in the security of 
their position. They were keenly conscious that the ability 
to maintain their position depended upon their own alertness 
and resourcefulness. To the national ambition for advancement H 
was now added a more powerful incentive, that of self-preser- j 
vation. 



CHAPTER VI 

The Chejiokees Adopt a Constitution 

Georgia had charged, as one of her arguments for removal, 
that the Cherokees were a semibarbarous people who stood in 
the way of state progress. As a matter of fact, they were 
almost as progressive as the white people of the state at that 
tirae.^ According to a report made to the War Department 
by the Reverend David Brown,^ who travelled extensively 
through the Cherokee Nation in the fall of 1825, farming and 
stock raising were successfully carried on, apple and peach 
orchards were common, and much attention was paid to the 
cultivation of gardens. Corn, wheat, oats, and tobacco were 
raised in abundance and cotton in sufficient quantities to sup- 
ply their own use and leave a considerable surplus to be shipped 
in boats of their own make to Ncav Orleans. Hides and live 
stock sold to the neighboring states brought sufficient currency 
into the nation.^ There were many flourishing villages and 
the numerous roads thi-ough the country had "public stops" 
kept by natives at convenient intervals. In the homes, cotton 
and woolen cloth and blankets and coverlets were woven, and 
stockings and gloves knitted. There were blacksmiths, silver- 
smiths and now and then a native carpenter.* Commercial en- 
terprises were being extended, and nearly all the merchants 
were Cherokee citizens. Churches and schools were increasing 
and plans were discussed for a high school, a library and 
a museum to be established and maintained at the expense 
of the Cherokee Nation. In one district alone there were re- 
ported to be upwards of a thousand volumes of good books, 
while eleven periodicals, political and religious were taken and 

^ Payne Mss. 2. 

""Cong. Doc. 138, No. 124; McKenney's Report of 1826; Amer. State 
Papers, II, p. 651. 

» In 1826 there were 22,000 cattle, 7,000 horses, 46,000 swine and 25,000 
sheep. Niles 30, p. 145. 

*0f saw mills there were sixteen, grist mills, thirty-one, looms, seven 
hundred and sixty-two, cotton mills, eight, and ferries, eighteen. Ibid. 



The Cherokees Adopt a Constitution 53 

read. It is doubtful whether in the surrounding country many 
groups of white population of equal number could have shown 
a better record. Stringent laws were passed against drunken- 
ness and the introduction of intoxicating liquors into the nation 
and indolence was frowned upon. The government was well 
organized and administered, while the revenue was in a flourish- 
ing condition.^ 

Adherence to some of their primitive customs in govern- 
ment had given rise to the accusation that they were uncivi- 
lized. In order to disabuse the mind of Georgia and the whole 
world of this idea, and to establish a firmer political foundation 
on which to build a greater Cherokee Nation, the Cherokees 
determined to establish a regular republican form of govern- 
ment based on a written constitution.*^ The idea is said to have 
originated with John Ross; it is probably more nearly the 
truth to say that the plan was wrought out by the four men 
who went up to Washington in the winter of 1824. Be that 
as it may a resolution passed by the General Council in the 
fall of 1826 provided for a constitutional convention to meet 
July 4, the following year at New Echota. On July 1 dele- 
gates to the convention were elected from each of the eight 
districts into which the nation had been divided in 1820. Vot- 
ing was conducted viva voce. In some districts interest was so 
great that the election "was warm and closely contested".^ 
The convention met and organized by electing John Ross chair- 
man. It then promptly addressed itself to the business of 
drafting a constitution. This document is closely modeled after 
the constitution of the United States and differs from it merely 
to meet the needs of local conditions. The most strikhig de- 
parture is found in the words of the preamble, "We, the 
Cherokee people, constituting one of the sovereign and independ- 
ent nations of the earth and having complete jurisdiction over 
its territory to the exclusion of the authority of any other state, 
do ordain this constitution".® The executive branch of the 

^American State Papers, Indmn Affairs, II, 651, Q^Q. 

' Cherokee Phoenix, Februarj-, 1828. 

^ Niles' Register 32, 255. 
W ^Cony. Doc. 273, No. 91; Payne Mss. 2. 



54 JoHx Ross AXD THE Chekokee Indians 

government was to be composed of a principal and a second 
chief, the legislature to consist of a National Committee com- 
posed of two representatives from each district and a Council 
composed of three, both branches to be styled "The General 
Council of the Cherokee Nation". The judiciary followed 
closely that outlined by the constitution of the United States. 
White men married into the tribe were to enjoy all the privi- 
leges of citizenship except the right to hold office, and land was 
still to remain the common property of the nation, improve- 
ments only belonging exclusively and indefeasibly to the in- 
dividual citizen. It provided religious toleration but no min- 
ister of the gospel was eligible to the office of Principal Chief 
or to a seat in the General Council.® All the provisions for a 
well regulated government were laid down in much detail and 
an Alabama paper commenting upon it thought the document 
taken as a whole well "calculated to produce the most happy 
results. The success of the Cherokees will stimulate other na- 
tions to adopt a similar policy ; and we may yet live to see one 
take after another, by dropping the tomahawk and following 
the example set them rise from savage barbarity to respecta- 
bility in the civilized world". ^^^ Three weeks later this con- 
stitution had been submitted to the people and ratified. When 
it went into effect the following year a new era in the history 
of the Cherokees had begun. ^^ 

Meanwhile the aged Path Killer, leader of the Conservative 
party, died^" and was followed in office by the second chief, 
Charles R. Hicks, who outlived him less than two weeks. The 
government then devolved upon Major Ridge, speaker of the 
Council, and John Ross, president of the Committee, until the 
regular meeting of Council the following fall. 

Major Ridge, at this time one of the most prominent men 
of the tribe, was a full-blood Cherokee and was undoubtedly 
one of the most able men the Cherokee Nation has ever produced. 
Handsome and commanding in appearance, keen and alert in 

^Cherokee Phoenix, Feb. 28, 1828. 
" Huntsville Democrat, in Niles' Register 33, 214. 
" Niles' Register 32, p. 214. 
"Jan. 8, 1827. 



The Cheiiokp:es Adopt a Constitution 55 

intellect, broad-minded and public-spirited, possessed of great 
strength of character and personal magnetism, he was a natural 
leader of men. By the sheer force of his native ability he forged 
his way to the front of Cherokee national affairs, where for 
more than thirty years he exercised a strong influence over the 
policy of the government. Like Sequoyah he had had no school 
advantages and was unable to read or write in English. His 
signature in the public records is made with a cross. Realizing 
the advantages of education from his own lack of it he en- 
couraged schools in the nation and sent his son, John Ridge, 
to be educated at Cornwall, Connecticut. In speaking of the 
work of the missionaries he once said that he could never be 
thankful enough to them for providing a way for his son to 
receive an education. He wished him to stay at Cornwall until 
he got a "great education" ; he hoped, also, that the Lord would 
give him "a good heart" so that when he came home he might 
be very useful to the nation. ^^ Since 1809, when at the sug- 
gestion of Agent Meigs a delegation had been appointed to go 
to Washington to treat for an exchange of lands, he had stood 
firmly and consistently opposed to removal. He was at this 
time a poor, unknown youth and this was his first attendance at 
Council. Nevertheless, he arose in the presence of the assembled 
chiefs, an unprecedented thing for a young man to do without 
invitation, and delivered such a fiery and eloquent appeal to 
the patriotism of the Indians that the project was promptly 
abandoned." For John Ross, who Avas several years his junior, "1 
he cherished a strong admiration and attachment and the 
younger man owed much of his rapid political advancement 
to Major Ridge. 

To fill the unexpired term of Path Killer and Charles R. 
Hicks, the Council, at regular session in the fall of 1827, ap- 
pointed William Hicks^° as principal, and John Ross as second 
chief. Naturally Hicks was fired with the ambition to become 
chief magistrate of the new government which went into effect 

" Morse, Indian Reports, p. 162. 

"McKenny and Hall, Indian Tribes of North America, I, p. 189 (1879) ; 
Vol. II, pp.. 77-106 (1885). 

^= This is said to have been done out of respect for his brother, Charles 
Ri Hicks, who was for many years the most influential chief of the tribe 
and was greatly beloved by his tribesmen. 



56 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

under the constitution in the following fall, and for a time his 
prospects seemed fair enough. But as the weeks went by he 
was frequently seen in company with United States agents and 
Georgia citizens. This aroused the suspicion of the Cherokees. 
A rumor went abroad that he was being tampered with and that 
he favored emigration and the sale of the country. This pre- 
saged his certain defeat and his friends tried to save him 
humiliation by persuading him to withdraw from the lists. He 
would not listen to them and was overwhelmingly defeated by 
John Ross, the opposition candidate placed in the field just be- 
fore the election. This check to Hick's ambition so embittered 
him that he never recovered from his disappointment. Every 
effort was made to win him back to himself and to his allegiance 
to his country, but the himiliation seeined to prey upon his mind 
and spirits. Such a man was not to be overlooked by design- 
ing white men seeking an entering wedge to split the nation 
into factions.^® 

Ross was now the most prominent man of his tribe both in 
the Cherokee Nation and out of it. His quiet, pleasant address, 
his integrity and sincerity of character together with his re- 
markable powers of self-control and discretion, which made him 
beloved by the Cherokees, won for him also the confidence and 
affection of the missionaries and the respect of statesmen and 
philanthropists in the north as well as of Federal officials with 
whom he had to deal in the Cherokee Nation. He was a pros- 
perous merchant and planter and lived in the style befitting 
his position. His wife, a full-blood Cherokee, known by her 
Indian name of Quata, was a woman of much intelligence and 
native ability, possessing race prejudice and considerable influ- 
ence with the tribe. From Ross's Landing he had moved to the 
head of the Coosa River^'^ where he had built a commodious two- 
story house and furnished it with some degree of luxury and 
refined taste. Here he had for neighbors Major Ridge who 
lived two miles away on the Coosa in a substantial and com- 
fortable home. John Ridge, whose Connecticut bride had in- 
sisted upon casting her lot with her husband's people, had built 

" Payne Mss. 2, p. 273. 
" Now Rome, Georgia. 



The Chkrokees Adopt a Coxstitution 57 

a home not far distant on the Two Run a few miles east of /. 
Oostinahleh. Elias Boudinot, cousin of Jolui Rid'^e, jdso cdu- \ 
cated in Connecticut and the first editor of the Cherokee Phoe- 
nix, lived at New Echota.^^ The treasurer of the Cherokee Na- 
tion, Major Jack Martin, had a handsome residence with carved 
mantels and marble hearths at Rock Springs. It is still stand- 
ing/^ James Vann had built a two-story brick mansion at 
Vann's Spring Place. These were some of Ross's friends among ] 
the wealthy and progressive men of the tribe. ^ 

As a delegate to Washington a good many winters Mr. Ross 
had come in contact with some of the greatest statesmen and 
politicians of his time. He was a close and keen observer of 
men and things and possessed, to a remarkable degree, the power 
of interpreting what he saw and heard and adapting it to his 
own and his nation's need. At the national capital he had 
gained much knowledge and inspiration which he was eager to 
put into practice for the benefit of the people of his tribe. 
The United States had practically recognized the Cherokee Na- 
tion as an independent nation ; the Cherokee delegates had been 
accorded diplomatic courtesy in Washington; the tribe had an 
alphabet, a printing press, a newspaper and a written con- 
stitution; industry and prosperity were in evidence through- 
out the length and breadth of their domain. Patriotism was at 
the full tide. Is it any wonder that the young Scotch Cherokee 
chief, fired with patriotic ardor and ambition, should begin to 
dream dreams and see visions of a greater Cherokee Nation, a 
republic of civiHzed Indians that should be the wonder and ad- 
miration of the world .P Whether he could have made his dreams 
come true had he been left to work out the plan unmolested 
will never be known. 

Georgia thought it was high time she was taking a hand 
when an independent republic was being set up with the intent 
to perpetuate a distinct community within her ancient and 
chartered limits. The legislature, December 27, passed a reso- 
lution reasserting that the title of the Cherokees to the land 
was temporary and that they were tenants at the will of the 

^' His wife was a New England woman, also. 

^Gude, Georgia and the Cherokees. p. 33. It is known as the home 
of Colonel Carter's familv. 



58 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

state wliich was now at full liberty to possess herself, by any 
means which she might choose, of the lands in dispute and 
extend over them her authority and laws. Georgia would give 
the Federal government one more chance to rid the state of 
Indians. If this failed the next legislature was urged to ex- 
tend the jurisdiction and laws of the state over their territory."** 
Governor Forsythe sent a copy of these resolutions to the 
President and included one of the "presumptuous" constitu- 
tions just adopted by the Cherokee Nation asking what he 
proposed to do about the erection of an independent govern- 
ment within the limits of the state. "^ In March the House of 
Representatives took up the question and instructed the judici- 
ary committee^' and later the Indian committee^^ to inquire 
into the circumstances of the new Cherokee republic and report 
upon the expediency of arresting its designs. 

But since the War Department was negotiating a treaty 
with the Arkansas Cherokees whereby their territorial limits 
were readjusted and their boundary lines permanently settled^* 
it was hoped that sufficient inducement might be held out to the ; 
Eastern Cherokees to emigrate. The Indian appropriation bill"^ 
contained a specific grant for $50,000 for carrying into effect 
the compact of 1802.'' This appropriation stimulated the 
Federal Government to renewed effort and Colonel Montgomery, 
the Indian agent, was given orders to provide transportation, 
rifles and blankets for such Cherokees as were ready to go west. 
Confidential agents were sent into the Cherokee Nation to in- 
duce cession or emigration. Captain James Rogers was em- 
ployed at a salary of $500 down and $500 more if he succeeded 
to go among the Cherokees and "explain to them the kind of 
soil, the climates, and prospects that awaited them in the west, 
and to use in his discretion the best methods to induce the 
Indians"^ to emigrate. Captain Rogers was a half-blood 

'" Acts of Georgia Assembly, 1827, p. 249. 
^ Niles' Register 33, p. 406. 

^' Gales and Seaton's Register Vol, IV, Part I, p. 914. 
'^ Ibid, p. 925. 

=* 7 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 311, May 6, 1828. 
=' 4 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 300, May 9, 1828. 

'^Indian Ojfice Letter Books, Series II, No. 5, p. 33, May 27, 1828; 
McKenney to Moymer; Abel, Indian Consolidation, p. 361. 



The Chekokees Adopt a Constitution 59 

Cherokee of considerable intelligence. For various reasons his 
mission proved an expensive failure. 

When the Cherokee Council met in October, 1828, it im- 
mediately took up the contentions of Georgia and answered them 
so ably that any sentiment for removal which might have existed 
among the members of the tribe was neutraliz.ed."' Colonel 
Montgomery, was ordered to leave his office in charge of a sub- 
agent and go out among the Indians to persuade them to enroll 
for emigration. He reported such strong and bitter opposition 
however, both towards the agents and towards the Indians who 
were enrolling"^ that those who knew the situation in the Chero- 
kee Nation most intimately were now convinced that the policy 
of voluntary removal advocated and ably defended by President 
Monroe and taken over b}^ President Adams was a lost issue. 
Removal, if accomplished at all, must be accomplished by 
coercion. In the presidential election of 1828 the south and the 
west rallied to the support of a presidential candidate from 
whom they had every reason to expect a change of tactics if he 
should come into power as the chief executive of the nation. 

" Niles' Register 35. 

=» Cong. Doc. 186, No. 95. 



CHAPTER VII 

The Removal Bill 

In October, 1828, Ross entered upon his duties as chief 
executive of the Cherokee republic. Although engrossed with 
the business of organizing the government and readjusting the 
old order of things to suit the new conditions, he followed with 
keen interest the absorbing question of the day, the presiden- 
tial election, which held such portentous possibilities for the 
Cherokee Nation^. Georgia realized these possibilities, and 
scarcely a month had elapsed after the result of the election 
was known when her legislature passed two acts intended to 
paralyse the Cherokee government. The first added Cherokee 
lands to certain northwestern counties of Georgia ; the second 
extended the laws of the state over these lands after Ja»ii 
a^' 1, 1830,' the Cherokee laws and customs to be null there 
after. 

The Cherokees, aglow with patriotic pride and ambition, 
had no intention of submitting to such humiliation. The Gen- 
eral Council, in session at New Echota, determined to appeal to 
the President of the United States for protection against the 
State. ^ It passed a resolution declaring the Georgia laws null 
and void and framed a memorial to the national executive 
protesting against that state's legislation, contrasting it with 
her profession of belief in the liberty and rights of man. The 
memorial recalled the guarantee of the United States to the 
Cherokees ; pleaded that the Cherokees, an innocent party not 
responsible for the compact with Georgia, were compelled to 
suffer for it ; called attention to the advancement of the people 
due largely to their proximity to civilizing influence, insisted 
that benefits to be gained by removal were purely visionary and 
asked the President to protect them in their treaty rights.* 

The delegation bearing the memorial arrived at the capital 
in the winter of 1829 to find themselves unable to get any 

^ Cherokee Phoenix, August, September and October, 1828. 

^ Dawson, Compilation of the Laws of the State of Chorgia, 1829, 29-198. 

''Cherokee Phoenix, October, 1828. 

* Cong. Doc. 187, No. 145 ; Parker, The Cherokee Indians, p. 19. 



'i 



The Removal Bill 61 

satisfaction from the retiring administration. Hoping against 
hope for greater success in dealing with an executive who pro- 
claimed justice his cardinal doctrine they determined to wait 
and present their cause to President Jackson. They attended 
the inaugural ceremonies and doubtless it filled them with re- 
newed hope to hear him say on that occasion that it would be 
his sincere and constant desire to observe towards the Indians 
a just and liberal policy, and to give that humane and con- 
siderate attention to their rights and their wants which was 
"consistent with the habits of our government and the feelings 
of the people."^ The last clause they were not yet prepared to 
interpret and appreciate. The Georgia contingent in Congress 
understood it better. 

More than a month wore away before the delegation finally 
secured a hearing with the Secretary of War. Any hopes 
which the President's message had aroused were dispelled by 
Major Eaton when, on April 18, he assured them that no 
remedy remained for their troubles but removal. If they 
wanted a home they could call their own they must go west, for 
there the President could guarantee the soil to them "as long 
as trees grow and waters run."*' The Cherokees contended that 
their people had been happy and prosperous in the land of 
their fathers and that removal would bring retrogression and 
disaster upon the tribe ; they did not want to move. The 
executive mind was made up just as firmly, however, and in May 
the delegation returned home to report the result of their 
mission." Before leaving Washington, they had been encour- 
aged by statesmen of the north and east to believe that Congress 
at its next session would come to their relief. An extra session 
of Council, called to hear the report of the delegation, there- 

^ Richardson's Messages of the Presidents, II, p. 438. 

'^Natchez Statesman and Gazette, June 29, 1829, Niles' Register ^6, 
p. 258; Payne Mss. 2. "If you will go to the setting sun there you will 
be happy; tliere you can remain in peace and quietness; so long as the 
waters run and the oaks grow that country shall be guaranteed to you 
and no white man shall be permitted to settle near you." Payne Mss. 6. 

''Cherokee Phoenix, May, 1828. 



62 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

fore, drew up memorials to the national legislature, praying for 
relief and potection on the ground of treaty obligations. 

But Congress did not meet for several months. Meanwhile 
to help along the removal project the President determined to 
send a secret agent among the Cherokees and the Creeks to see 
what could be done in the way of securing individual acqui- 
escence with the view, as later events proved, to building up a 
party favorable to removal with which a treaty could be nego- 
tiated. He selected for this delicate mission General William 
Carroll, then a candidate for governor of Tennessee and a man 
supposed to have considerable influence with the Indians. His 
instructions to conceal from even the chiefs the official charac- 
ter he carried with him, and the suggestion that presents to the 
amount of not more than $2000 be distributed to the poorer 
Indians, the chiefs' children and even the chiefs themselves with 
the object of attaching them to him,* indicate the trend of the 
administration in dealing with the Indians. General Carroll 
went to the Cherokee Nation, saw the conditions there and re- 
ported to the War Department on November 19 that the 
Cherokees were too intelligent and "too well posted on current 
news of the day" to be kept in ignorance of the motives and 
methods of those who came among them. He paid a high 
tribute to Cherokee civilization and expressed the opinion that 
they were encouraged by eastern newspapers to believe that 
the people did not support the President in his views on removal, 
and that Congress, at the next session, would sustain them in 
their protests against the encroachments of Georgia.® 

That was enough for President Jackson. Determined to 
forestall the Cherokees and their friends he sent a message to 
Congress December 8, in which he advocated Indian removal on 
the ground that the rights of a sovereign state were being 
interfered with, and stated in reply to the protest of the Chero- 
kees against the extension of Georgia laws over them, that the 
attempt of the Indians to establish an independent government 
in Georgia and Alabama would not be countenanced.^" 

* Eaton's Letters of Instruction to Carroll, May 30, 1829. Indian Oifice 
Manuscript Records. 

» Ibid. Carroll to Eaton. November 19, 1829. 

" Richardson's Messages of the Presidents, II, 456-459. 



The Removal Bill 63 

Both the House and the Senate promptly took up the 
question and all through the winter the Removal Bill brought 
out much bitter feeling and some memorable discussions in 
defense of the Indians. In the Senate it was the main topic of 
discussion in the committee of the whole for three weeks. Fre- 
Hnghuysen of New Jersey and Sprague of Maine ably opposed 
it on the ground of the binding force of treaty obligations, and 
upon general principles of justice and humanity. Porsythe of 
Georgia, McKinley of Alabama and White of Tennessee, appeal- 
ing to sectional prejudice, defended it on the theory of the 
state's right to the soil within its limits. In the House the 
fallacy of pretending to remove the Indians for their own good 
from a community where they had comfortable homes, culti- 
vated fields, churches and schools, to a wilderness where they 
would be surrounded by savage tribes, was exposed by Storrs 
of New York in a speech remarkable for its logic and forensic 
power. H'e attacked the President for arrogating to himself 
authority never conferred upon him in presuming to deliver to 
Congress an opinion on state authority and for seeking to 
annul treaties, some of which he himself had negotiated. ^^ 

As the discussions in the national legislature revealed the 
situation of the Indians the indignation of the country at large 
was aroused and protests poured in upon Congress. One from 
Adams County, Penns3dvania, praying for the protection of the 
Indians is particularly worthy of notice. It declared that the 
Cherokees were an independent nation entitled to all the right 
of such except so far as surrendered by treaty. The treaties of 
Hopewell and Holston had taken place before the compact with 
Georgia was entered into. In this compact Georgia had ex- 
plicity acknowledged the existence of the Indians as a nation 
with whom the United States were to hold treaties and extin- 
guish their title as soon as the same could be done on peaceable 
and reasonable terms, and by such acknowledgment admitted 
the validity of former treaties which guaranteed their existence 
and protection. The treaty of Hopewell was older than the 
constitution. The constitution in declaring treaties the 

"Gales and Seaton's Register, Vol. VI, Part II, pp. 996-1003. Index 
to Senate and House Journals, 21st Congress, 1st session; National Intelli- 
gencer, May 24, 1838. 



64 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

supreme law of the land directly recognized the right to treat 
Avith Indians and treaties regularly negotiated with them were 
sacred as any law of the land.^^' 

In spite of protests and hot debate the Removal Bill passed 
in May/^ and was promptly signed by the President. It was, in 
the words of Senator Benton, "one of the closest and most 
earnestly contested questions of the session and was carried by 
an inconsiderable majority."^* 

A new complication was added to the Cherokee troubles in 
July 1829 when deposits of gold, found on Ward's Creek in the 
northAvestern part of the nation, caused the value of Cherokee 
land to increase enormously. Treasure seekers from the sur- 
rounding states flocked into the gold region in such numbers 
that within a year three thousand disorderly white men were 
prospecting for the precious ore on Cherokee soil. They found 
the business very profitable. Early in October, 1830, the New 
York American reported that two hundred and thirty thousand 
dollars worth of gold had been received in Augusta, alone, 
during the last nine months ; and Mr. Templeton Reid was 
coining and stamping, at his mint in Gainesville, Georgia, a hun- 
dred dollars of gold every day.^^ These gold diggers were in- 
truders operating unlawfully under an enactment of the Chero- 
kee Nation prohibiting anyone to settle or trade on their land 
without a permit from Cherokee oflicials, and under a Federal 
intercourse law prohibitinganyone frm settling or trading on 
Indian territory without a special license from the proper 
United States authorities.^*^ The gold diggers paid no atten- 
tion to either the Cherokee or Federal laws. A period of law- 
lessness prevailed in which the Cherokees who had joined 
eagerly in prospecting got the worst of the bargain. Governor 
Gilmer, always with an eye single to the interests of his state, 
issued a proclamation in which he warned all persons, even 
Indian occupants, from trespassing upon Georgia soil, and es- 

^ Cong. Doc. 208, No. 90. 

"4 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 411. 

"Benton's Thirty Years' View, I, 164. 

" Niles' Register 39, p. 106. 

" Georgia had declared her laws would go into effect there June 1, 1830. 



The Rkmoval Bill 65 

pecially from taking any gold or silver from the land/^ The 
Indians, considering that they had a right to do what they 
would with their own, paid no attention to the proclamation. 
Thereupon the Georgia authorities arrested and roughly 
marched them off to prison. The United States troops, sent 
into the country in 1829 to quell the tumult, when appealed to, 
refused to give the Indians any protection on the ground that 
state laws were not to be interfered with.^'' 

When the Georgia legislature convened in October it immedi- 
ately proceeded to pass laws for the gold region.^^ October 29, 
the governor wrote to the President asking that the troops be 
removed since Georgia had extended her jurisdiction over that 
region. This request was granted and the troops went into 
winter quarters leaving the state a free hand."" The legislature 
next proceeded to establish a guard of sixty men stationed at 
the agency to keep down disorders in the gold region; it then 
passed an act making it unlawful for the Cherokee Council to 
meet except for the purpose of ceding land, while a penalty of 
four years' imprisonment was fixed for Cherokee judges who 
presumed to hold court. The same law provided that all wliite 
persons residing in the Cherokee country on March 1, 1831, or 
thereafter, without a license from the governor of Georgia 
should be guilty of misdemeanor, the penalty being not less 
than four years' imprisonment ; the governor was allowed to 
license those who would take an oath to support and defend the 
constitution and laws of Georgia and to demean themselves 
uprightly as citizens of the State. ^^ 

Further legislation followed in the next few years providing 
for the mapping out of the Cherokee territory into counties 
and for surveying it into land lots of 160 acres each and gold 
lots of forty acres each. These lots were put up and distributed 
among white citizens of Georgia, each receiving a ticket. While 

"Niles' Register 38, p. 328. 

*« Ibid, 38, pp. 404, 405. 

" Ibid, 39, p. 106. 

'» Ibid 39, p. 264. 

=^ Prince's Digest of the Laws of Georgia to 183T. 



66 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

each Cherokee was allowed a reservation of 160 acres no deed 
was given and possession of it depended upon the pleasure of 
the state legislature. Contests over these lottery claims were 
inevitable. Provision was made for those arising among white 
people. A law forbidding anyone of Indian blood to bring suit 
or testify against a white man made it impossible for the 
Indian to defend his rights in any court or to resist the seizure 
of his homestead or even his dwelling house under penalty of 
imprisonment at the discretion of the Georgia courts. Another 
law making invalid any contract made by an Indian unless 
established by the testimony of two white men practicall}' 
cancelled all debts due from white men to Indians. The purpose 
of these laws was not far to seek. Georgia was "building fires 
around the Cherokees" to force them to remove. White men 
who entered the Cherokee country in armed bands, called 
"Poney-clubs,""^ seized horses and cattle and drove them off, 
ejected families from their homes and set fire to their houses, 
turning the occupants out in bleak weather to seek shelter 
where they might. These were but some of the atrocities perpe- 
trated by the Georgians. When the perpetrators were arrested 
and brought to trial, the cases were dismissed on the ground 
that no Indian could testify against a white man."* 

The conscience of the whole country was aroused as the situ- 
ation of the Indians became known. Criticism of national Ex- 
ecutive and Legislature became too uncomfortable for the Presi- 
dent. He had intended that removal should be accomplished witli 
less notoriety. Therefore in order further to disable them and 
prevent them from employing attorneys, sending delegates to 
Washington and publishing the Cherokee Phoenix, Jackson 
issued instructions through the War Department to Indian 
agents in 1830 that henceforth annuities were to be distributed 
among families and individuals.^^ The annuity was a sum of 
money paid annually by the United States to the Cherokees in 
consideration for land cessions made at various times after the 
treaty of Hopewell. It amounted at this time to $10,000, two- 

^Niles' Register 40, p. 132. 

"Edward Everett, Speech in Senate, April 16, 1830. Peter Force, 
Printer. Niles' Register 39, pp. 179-180. 
^ Cong. Doc. 208, No, 102, p. 2. 



The Removal Bill 67 

thirds of which was due to the eastern nation. Since 1819 it ^ i 
had been turned over to a national treasurer elected by the 
tribe and used for the support of the government and for other 
national expenses. As a per capita payment it amounted to 
about forty-two cents, a sum less than the expense of a trip to 
the agency to "draw" it. The Cherokees refused to receive it 
in this fashion and, although they voted time after time that it 
should be paid in the usual way to their treasurer, it was 
withheld and allowed to accumulate in a Nashville-*^ bank for five 
years while the Council was forced to raise loans on the credit 
of the nation and to issue ducbills for the payment of salaries. ■'^ 
The United States commissioners used the annuities as a pre- 
text for assembling the tribe for the purpose of urging removal, ^' 
much to their inconvenience and annoyance. 

But neither the withholding of annuities nor the encroach- 
ment upon their territory by state authority facilitated the ob- 
ject aimed at by Georgia. The Cherokees, conscious of their 
rights and of the support of public opinion, refused to remove 
or even to treat for a small cession of land. 

When it became evident that the object of Georgia's hostile 
legislation, the Removal Bill and the President's suspension of 
annuities, all looked toward forcible removal, Chief Ross, acting 
on the suggestion of such men as Webster and Frelinghuysen 
determined to appeal for redress to the Supreme Court. He em- 
ployed ex- Attorney General Wirt and Mr. Sargeant as counsel, 
who, in January, 1831, introduced a motion before the Supreme 
Court for an injunction to prevent the execution of the objec- 
tionable laws of Georgia. 

This motion was reached on the docket of the Supreme Court 
early in March. '^^ The bill set forth the complainant to be the 
Cherokee Nation of Indians, a foreign state, not owing alle- ■ 
giance to the United States, nor to any state of the Union, nor to 
any prince, potentate or any state other than their own ; 
renewed the various treaties between them and the United 
States by which their lands were guaranteed to them, treaties 

^ Payne Mss. 2, p. 383; Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120, p. 543. 

" Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120, p. 529. Statement by John Ridge. 

'" March 5, 1831. 



68 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

which the Cherokees had always faithfully observed; claimed 
for themselves the benefit of the clause in the constitution de- 
claring treaties the supreme law of the land; complained of 
the violation of the treaties by the state of Georgia; claimed 
the protection of the United States against the state and asked 
the court to declare null and void the laws of Georgia which 
interfered with the ancient rights and privileges of the tribe.^^ 
The motion for injunction was denied on the ground that the 
Cherokee Nation was not a foreign state in the sense of the 
constitution and could not maintain an action in the courts of 
the United States, Chief Justice Marshall and Justice Story 
dissenting from the opinion of the majority of the court. 

The laws of 1830 in regard to white persons residing in the 
Cherokee Nation were aimed at gold diggers and intermarried 
white men suspected of encouraging opposition to removal. 
But a Aveek after the passage of the law, the whole body of 
missionaries in the Cherokee Nation brought themselves under 
its ban by holding a meeting at New Echota where they passed 
resolutions exonerating themselves from the charge of meddling 
in Indian politics, and declaring their conviction that removal 
of the Indians would seriously retard their progress in civiliza- 
tion and that the extension of Georgia's jurisdiction would 
work an immense and irreparable injury. When called upon 
to retract or leave the nation they refused to do either, where- 
upon Dr. S. A. Worcester and J. Thompson, two ordained mis- 
sionaries and Isaac Procter, a teacher, were arrested by the 
Georgia Guard, chained together in pairs and taken to head- 
quarters seventy or eighty miles away with considerable mili- 
tary display designed to impress the Indians.^" After a pre- 
liminary trial they were dismised on the ground that they were 
agents of the United States as dispensers of the civilization 
fund."^^ Governor Gilmer dissented from the opinion of the 
judge. After communicating with Secretary Eaton, he found 
that seven of the nine missionaries residing in the Cherokee 

® The Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia, Peters' Supreme Court Reports, 
Vol. 5, p. 1; Niles' Register 39, pp. 31, 338, 339. 
^'Niles 40, p. 297. 
^^Missioimry Herald, March, 1831, ^^ol. XXVII, 79-84; Niles 40, p. 132. 



The Removal Bill 69 

Nation were supported entirely by the American Board''" and 
that only one of them, Dr. Worcester who was postmaster at 
New Echota, could in any way be considered an agent of the 
United States. Dr. Worcester was particularly objectionable 
to Georgia because of his connection with the Cherokee Phoenix 
which had published a number of articles exposing the true 
situation in regard to removal and the aggression of the state, 
appealing strongly to the sympathy of the North and East. 
He was at once deprived of his secular office in order to make 
him fully amenable to Georgia. Thereupon the missionaries 
were again arrested with great cruelty and brought before a 
Georgia tribunal where Dr. Worcester and Mr. Elizur Butler, 
refusing to accept the governor's pardon by taking an oath of 
citizenship, were sentenced to four years' hard labor in the 
penitentiary where they were compelled to wear prison garb 
and work on the rock pile.^^ The missionaries with Mr. Wirt 
as counsel appealed to the Supreme Court which in 1832 
rendered the decision declaring unconstitutional those laws by 
which Georgia had extended her jurisdiction over Indian terri- 
tory, and the one under which Dr. Worcester was indicted.^^ 
News of the decision reaching the Cherokees late in March was 
like "a shower of rain on thirsty vegetation",^^ says Elijah 
Hicks. The feeling of depression and uncertainty vanished like 
the mists before the sun. The decision was celebrated by dances "7 
and feasts. The young people were merry, the older ones con- 
tented and happy. Once more the Cherokees seemed standing 
upon a solid foundation.^*^ 

Georgia was prepared to fight rather than submit to this 
decision. The President found himself in a dilemma and the 
whole country looked on to see what he would do. To South 
Carolina he declared, "the laws of the United States must be 

^^ The Methodists and Moravians had recalled their missionaries. The 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions had left their 
missionaries to decide the question of leaving the country for themselves. 

=^ Payne Mss. 7, 125-130. 

^*Niles 42, pp. 40-56. 

''Letter of Elijah Hicks to a friend in Washington, March 26, 1832. 
Niles 42, p. 201. 

■^ Ibid. 



70 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

executed. Those who told you that you might peaceably pre- 
vent their execution have deceived you. Their object is dis- 
union, and disunion by armed force is treason". Mr. Ross, who, 
it would seem, had some ground for hope, confided to Council 
in October, 1833, that since the Supreme Court had decided the 
Cherokee case favorably and the President had declared the 
supremacy of the constitution and the laws of the United States 
over state authority there was every reason to believe that he 
would ultiraatel}^ enforce the treaties and intercourse acts for 
their protection." "The people of the United States owe Jack- 
son a deep debt of gratitude", says an American historian. 
"His name — a name of power for many years to come — was 
joined with the idea of union, and the supremacy of the consti- 
tution".^^ It was the supremacy of the constitution as Presi- 
dent Jackson chose to interpret it, however, that the doughty 
general would defend so gallantly, and not as the Supreme 
Court interpreted it. The highest tribunal of the land had 
spoken and its decision had been a victory for the Cherokees 
and for justice. The chief executive of the United States is 
said to have dismissed the subject quite cavalierly with the 
words, "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him en- 
force it".^^ Verily consistency is not a jewel that adorns An- 
drew Jackson's crown, if, perchance, he wears one. 

^ Niles' Register 45, p. 127. 

^ McLaughlin's History of American Nation, p. 328. 

^'Greeley's American Conflict, I, p. 106. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Factional Strife 

The temper of the Scotch Indian chief, already severely 
tried, was yet to undergo a more severe test. His nation had 
been harassed by distractions from without. It now came to v 
suffer dissentions within the body politic. 

In 1828 Whitepath, a full-blood of the conservative type, ~? 
had headed a rebellion against the new government and against ; 
the Christian religion which was at this time winning many ■ 
converts. The Cherokee government succeeded in putting it -^ 
down without serious trouble or bloodshed, and the leaders be- 
came reconciled to the new order of things, Whitepath becom- 
ing a member of Council under the constitution. A few ir- 
reconcilables remained, however, to become the nucleus of a 
party favorable to emigration. William Hicks joined them 
when he became estranged and embittered by his political de- 
feat,^ and used what influence he possessed in adding recruits ' 
to the malcontents. This discontented group fell a ready prey 
to the machinations of designing white men. Benjamun F. 
Curry, sent by the Federal Government at the dictation of 
Georgia, to open enrolling agencies in the Cherokee Nation,^ 
together with his assistants, all Georgians, had lost no time in 
making friends of them. Another factor was added to the situa- 
tion the same year when Wilson Lumpkin succeeded to the 
governorship of Georgia with the fixed determination to force 
removal. Thoroughly familiar with the Indian situation, hav- 
ing spent the winter of 1825-26 in the Cherokee Nation as a 
member of the board of public works, when he visited and 
conversed with all the prominent men of the tribe, he had al- 
ready laid the foundation for the influence he was prepared to 
wield for removal. Federal and state officials joined forces, 
halting at no means or method to accomplish their purpose. 
By resorting to bribery and intrigue the most disgraceful, 
and manipulations the most subtle, they succeeded in detaching 

^ Payne Mss. 6; Mooney, Myths of the Cherokees, pp. 113, 114. 

^ Abel, Indian Consolidation, p. 402. 



72 John Ross axd the Cherokee Indians 

some of the most prominent and some of the strongest men of 
the Cherokee Nation from their own government and building 
up a faction favorable to removal. The factional breach, once 
started, kept growing broader and the removal project grew 
correspondingly brighter, 

Georgia had anticipated important results from her law 
forbidding the Cherokees to hold assemblies within her limits. 
Omission of the Council to assemble was expected completely to 
demoralize the Cherokee government which was preparing to 
appoint a new delegation to Washington, and leave its citizens 
at the mercy of the Federal Government and the state. An 
attempt to meet would be an infringement of the Georgia law, 
and would give the Georgia Guard an excuse for arresting and 
hauling off to prison the leaders of the Cherokees. Chiefs Ross 
and Hicks were in favor of abiding strictly by the constitution 
and holding the regular session of the Council at New Echota, 
regardless of consequences. They were overruled, however, in 
a preliminary meeting of the Council held at the Ross home, 
the argument prevailing that they would inevitably be attacked 
by the Georgia Guard, and as the people would not see their 
chiefs and representatives dragged away ignominously without 
resistance, the consequences would be disastrous.^ Chatooga, 
Alabama, an old camp meeting ground, was chosen as the meet- 
ing place of the General Council of 1831. Here rude sheds 
were made by laying rough boards on poles supported by forked 
stakes driven into the ground, while logs arranged in rows fur- 
nished benches for council and judges, as well as for the great 
crowd of people, who, according to ancient custom, were in at- 
tendance.* Chatooga proved too remote from the main body of 
the tribe, however, and Red Clay in southern Tennessee was 
chosen as the place of the next meeting.^ This proved more 
convenient and remained the capital as long as the Cherokees 
remained in the East. 

The terms for which the chiefs and members of the legisla- 
ture were elected expired at the close of the first session of 

^ Payne Mss. 2, p. 359. 

* Ibid, p. 361. 

^Ibid 2, pp. 317-373. 



Factional Strife 73 

Council held at Red Clay. According to the constitution, a 
new election would take place the following summer before the 
next meeting of Council. Inasmuch as the confusion caused by 
the Georgia laws prevented elections in the regular manner 
the Council referred the question to the people, a large number 
of whom was in attendance. They called a convention forth- 
with on the council ground and representatives from the dif- 
ferent districts were chosen from among those present. This 
convention passed a resolution continuing in office "the present 
national executive, legislative and judicial officials, the same 
being the people's last choice". Until elections could be held 
constitutionally, vacancies w^ere to be filled b}^ the Principal 
Chief, subject to the approval of the upper house.*' 

The action of this convention was far from gratifying to 
the Ridges and their friends who were beginning to lose favor 
with the administration on account of rumors of disaffection 
and leanings toward removal. Friendly association with re- 
moval agents gave color to these reports and John Ridge was 
impeached by the Council on complaints filed by his own dis- 
trict on the ground that he no longer represented the opinion 
of the district. Major Ridge and David Vann were next im- 
peached for advancing policies contrary to those of the ma- 
jority. No trial was ever held, it being the chiefs' policy to 
avoid arousing antagonism, and all three resigned.^ Elias 
Boudinot resigned from the editorship of the Phoenix in 1832 
because Mr. Ross discouraged a free discussion of the removal 
policy^ and with the Ridges and Vanns went over to the op- 
position which had gained a sufficient following by 1835 to 
organize a party^ with Wm. Hicks as Principal Chief and John 
Mcintosh Second Chief. A legislature was appointed and steps 
were taken to supplant the existing government. Dissenters 
arose in their own ranks, however, and a large number of them 
emigrated. Among those left behind were the Ridges, Boudinot, 
Vann and Andrew Ross. 

« Ibid, p. 369. 
' Cong. Doc. 315, No. 121. 
8 Concf. Doc. 315, No. 121. 
* Niles' Register 47, p. 353. 



74 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

The two Ridges and Boudinot, because of their superior 
ability and influence, soon became recognized as leaders of the 
opposition party both by the Cherokees and the Federal au- 
thorities. Of Major Ridge and his nephew, Elias Boudinot, 
some account has been given in preceding chapters. John 
Ridge, educated in New England, was a young man of great 
promise, handsome, brilliant and ambitious. ^° After completing 
his education he returned with his Connecticut bride to the 
Cherokee Nation to enter with all the ardor and enthusiasm of 
confident youth into the political and social life of the tribe. 
His superior education, his eloquence, his distinguished appear- 
ance, enhanced by his taste for handsome apparel in which his 
father's wealth permitted him to indulge, his fondness for dis- 
tinction and power, ( all characteristics of the young men of the 
ruling class throughout the south) gave him the reputation of 
being the most promising young man of the Cherokee Nation. 
When in 1832 he and Elias Boudinot made a tour of the east, 
addressing enthusiastic audiences in New York and Boston on 
the condition of their people, all who heard him were impressed 
with his gentlemanly bearing and stirring eloquence. ^^ 

Young Ridge naturally desired and expected some day to 
occupy the highest position which his government had to offer. 
His political career began auspiciously when he became a member 
of the National Committee of which his father was president, 
his popularity and reputation for tribal patriotism reaching its 
zenith when he brought to bear all his influence for the renewal 
of a law, the provisions of which had been drafted by his father, 
making it a death penalty for any person or group of persons 
to sell Cherokee land without the consent of the Council. As 
long as there was any hope of attaining the chieftainship, the 
way to which was temporariW blocked by the superior influence 
of a man in some respects seemingly inferior to him, Ridge was 
content to bide his time. But when the Council of 1831 made 
John Ross chief executive indefinitely. Ridge saw his chances 
of political advancement utterly destroyed, unless the uncer- 
tainty of the times should work some change more advantageous 

^"McKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes of North America, Vol. II, pp. 
103-106 (1855)." 

" Niles' Register 56, p. 342. 



Factional Strife 75 

\ '■■■'" 
to his prospects. Little by little an estrangement grew up be- 
tween Ross and Ridge with his coterie of friends and admirers \ 
which government and state agents eagerly seized upon. The ' 
Ridges hitherto had consistently opposed emigration. Now 
they began to look upon it more favorably. Readjustment 1 
in a new country might give them the political opportunity 
Avhich would be denied them indefinitely in the east. J 

But the motives that prompted them were not altogether 
selfish and personal. They were men of honor and patriotism, 
conscious of the possibilities of the misuse of power concen- 
trated in the hands of one man with strong political backing, 
with unlimited tenure of office and the control of the purse 
strings. To be sure the purse was now empty, but it would not 
always be so ; when the annuities were paid the money could 
be used greatly to the advantage and profit of those in control 
of the government. Some of these men of the opposition party 
were undoubtedly high-minded, far-sighted men who, honestly 
convinced that their people could never be restored to peace 
and happiness in the east, and seeing the futility of further 
resisting the Federal Government, took what appealed to them 
as the only way out of the difficulty. They now came out 
boldly against the Ross party and worked openly for removal. 

Thus before it had been launched three years the very ex- 
istence of the Cherokee republic was being threatened from 
within and without. No one appreciated its situation more 
keenly than the captain of the small craft of state who, with 
every faculty alert, bent all his energy to the task of quelling 
the mutiny on board while weathering the tempest steadily 
growing darker and fiercer without, threatening to overwhelm 
him and his people in shipwreck and ruin. Sustained by his 
Christian optimism he kept a clear head and a steady hand, 
firmly believing that the justice of the Cherokee cause would 
finally triumph and that a quiet harbor could yet be reached if 
domestic peace and harmony could be restored, and forbearance 
and patience maintained towards the disturbing elements with- 
out. Appealing to his people as well as to a higher power than 
his own or theirs he issued a proclamation recommending July 
nineteenth to be observed as a day of fasting and prayer 



76 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

out the Cherokee Nation. The proclamation declared, "We 
have need to go to the Ruler of the Universe in this day of deep 
affliction. We have been too long trusting to an arm of flesh 
which has proved to be but a broken reed", ("Happy is he who 
hath the God of Jacob for his refuge", — that God "which 
keepeth truth forever, which executeth judgment for the op- 
pressed".) and whether the time of tribulation and sorrow 
through which they were passing was caused by the wanton de- 
pravity and wickedness of man or by the unsearchable and 
mysterious will of a wise Providence it equally became them as 
a rational and Christian community humbly to bow in humilia- 
tion.^" 

The majority of the tribe responded and on the day ap- 
pointed age and youth, middle age and childhood, repaired to 
camp meeting grounds, to convenient groves or dwellings, and 
fasted and prayed. The occasion was profoundly dignified and 
impressive. Ross knelt and prayed with his people and arose 
to resume his duties refreshed in spirit and entrenched in the 
hearts of his tribesmen whose abiding faith in him was to stand 
the test of bribery and intrigue, of lying and calumny to the 
end of his long and stormy career. 

^Niles' Register 42, p. 441; Cherokee Phoenix, July 7, 1832; Drake's 
Indians, p. 458 (1880). 



CHAPTER IX 

The National Executive Refuses Protection 
TO the Indians 

Chief Ross, Avith a delegation, spent the following winter 
in Washington, bringing to bear every influence at his command 
upon the President and Congress to furnish some relief to the 
Cherokees. But the only course offered was removal. Finally 
in a communication dated January 28, 1833, the chief assured 
the executive that notwithstanding the various perplexities the 
Cherokees had experienced they were yet unshaken in their 
objection to removal. They had no assurance that removal 
westward would not be followed in a few years by consequences 
no less fatal than those which they were then suffering. He 
then suggested that the government satisfy those Georgians 
who had taken possession of Cherokee land under the lottery 
drawing by assigning them unoccupied lands in other terri- 
tories.^ Secretary Cass replied that he could not foresee any 
cause for fearing that removal would be injurious either in its 
immediate or remote consequences. A mild climate, a fertile 
soil, an inviting and extensive country, a government of their 
own, adequate protection against other Indians and against 
United States citizens, pecuniary means for removal, all were 
offered them. Mr. Cass could not see the subject in the melan- 
choly light in which the Cherokees had presented it. 

He urged that it was only by removal they could find a 
safe retreat for themselves since "as long as any remained in 
Georgia they were subject to the laws of that state, surrounded 
by white settlements and exposed to all those evils which had 
always attended the Indian race when placed in immediate 
contact with the white population. It was only by removing 
them that they could expect to avoid the fate which had al- 
ready swept away so many Indian tribes." Ross replied with 
deep regret, he felt constrained to say, that in this scheme for 
Indian removal, he could see more of expediency and policy to 
get rid of the Cherokee than to perpetuate their race upon any 

^ Comj. Doc. 268, No. 71, p. 29. 



78 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

permanent fundamental principle. If the doctrine, that they 
could not exist contiguous to a white population, should prevail 
and they should be compelled to remove west of the states and 
territories of the republic, what was to prevent a similar re- 
moval of them from that place for the same reason?^ 

The delegation returned home in March without having 
secured any promise of relief or any encouragement whatever 
from the executive. Ross agreed, before leaving Washington, 
however, to submit to the Council a proposition to pay the 
Cherokees $2,500,00 for their land if they would remove at 
their own expense. The President appointed Benj. F. Curry 
to represent the interests of the government at the meeting of 
Council called for the purpose of receiving the report of the 
delegation. Mr, Curry left no stone unturned in his zeal for 
securing a treaty of cession. A bribe of $5,000 very adroitly 
proposed to the principal chiefs by one of Curry's accomplices 
and spurned by the chief with bitter contempt, caused the 
commissioner to lose the last vestige of respect in the eyes of 
the Indians who already hated him cordially. The Council re- 
fused to accept the President's terms and adjourned, after 
having appointed another delegation to Washington the follow- 
ing month. 

The condition of the Cherokees was now becoming w^orse and 
worse. Deprived of their annuity funds, the country demoral- 
ized politically and economically,* the Indians were suifering. 
They could no longer look for relief from Washington. The 
factional fight grew more bitter day by day and fresh recruits 
were being added to the party in favor of a treaty. 

To add to the confusion, the Georgia legislature, as has 
been mentioned before, had passed an act which granted to 
fortunate drawers of lots the lands occupied by the improve- 
ments of those Indians who had accepted reservations under 
former treaties. This act included the improvements of all who 
had enrolled for emigration and after having accepted pay for 

^ Ibid, pp. 30-31. 

^ Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Agent Montgomery, April 22, 1833. 
Indian Office Manuscript Records; Cherokee Phoenix, March 6, 1832. 
7 * Niles' Register 44, p. 230. 



President Refuses Pbotection to the Indians 79 

their improvements had remained in the Nation.^ Additional 
legislation at the same session was passed to induce removal. 
The next year a law granting possession of these lots was a 
signal for worse depredations than any formerly committed. 
Some of the best Cherokee homesteads were seized, live stock 
confiscated, and owners ejected from their homes. Georgians ] 
who had never before lived in anything but a one-room log cabin i 
found themselves ensconced in comfortable and commodious ^ 
quarters. One Georgia lottery gambler, whose sole possessions 
consisted of the clothes he wore and two or three pistols, drew 
the lot belonging to an industrious Indian boy^ who had im- 
proved his premises until they were of considerable value. The 
gambler loaded up his possessions, and, "leaving his low vaulted 
past", went into the Cherokee country, entered the house of the 
Indian, took possession of the comfortable buildings and cul- . 
tivated fields and "stretched himself in his new found home and / 
knew the old no more".^ Charles Hicks was forced to vacate 
his pleasant and comfortable home in the dead of winter and 
move his family to Tennessee, where they found shelter in an old 
sugar camp."' Mr. Martin, the Cherokee treasurer, received 
notice from the state agent, Colonel Bishop, on January 20 that 
he must prepare to give entire possession of his premises in the 
next thirty days or suffer the penalty of the law.'' His carved 
mantels and marble hearths were part of the prize that fell 
to another fortunate Georgian, 

Hundreds of other cases might be added, but it is useless to 
multiply examples to show that in her determination to cleanse 
her soil of the aborigines the state and her citizens were pre- 
pared to go to any length, though all the while strenuously dis- "I 
avowing any selfish or sinister motives toward the Indians.^°y 
One other instance is of interest, however, as showing how state 
officials took advantage of legal technicalities to further the in- 
terests of friends and relatives. The case is that of Joseph Yann, 

' Ibid, p. 231. 

« Ibid, p. 270. 

' Holmes's Chambered Nautilus. 

8 Payne Mss. 2. 

» Conff. Doc. 296, No. 286, p. 5. 

" Ibid, p. 6. 



80 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

a rich planter of Vann's Spring Place/^ whose plantation con- 
tained about eight hundred acres of cultivated land. His im- 
provements consisted of a brick house, costing about ten thous- 
and dollars, mills, kitchens, negro quarters, gardens and apple 
and peach orchards, a rare prize not to be disposed of by lottery. 
Mr. Vann's estate was so extensive he was compelled to employ 
an overseer. In the fall of 1833 he was called away from home 
on business. Before going he made a conditional contract with 
a Mr. Howell, a white man, to superintend his plantation for 
him during the year beginning January 1, ISSi. On returning 
home in the latter part of December and learning of a state 
law prohibiting a Cherokee from hiring a white man, Vann 
promptly canceled his contract with Howell. The state agent, 
Mr. Bishop, notwithstanding, notified the Georgia authorities 
that Vann had violated the state laws by hiring a white man, 
thereby forfeiting his right of occupancy. Conflicting claims 
for possession arose between the state agent and a Mr. Riley. 
Riley took possession of the upper part of the dwelling armed 
for a siege. When Bishop and his party arrived a pitched 
battle ensued. Riley could not be dislodged and Bishop set fire 
to the house. Riley then surrendered and the fire was extin- 
guished. Vann with his frightened household, in the meantime, 
had taken refuge in a remote room of the house. After the 
smoke of battle cleared away they were driven out and forced to 
make their way over the snow-covered fields into the limits of 
Tennessee. Here they found shelter in an open log cabin with 
a dirt floor. Mr. Bishop's brother, Absolam, moved into the 
Vann mansion and took possession of the estate.^" 

Outrages were perpetrated upon the poor as well as upon 
the prosperous. The suffering and destitution of these helpless 
victims was pitiful to see ; their story is too heartrending to 
dwell upon.^^ Yet the Cherokees remained unshaken in their 

" It will be remembered that the first mission station in the Cherokee 
nation had been established here with the help of Vann's father. Joseph 
Vann as a boy had fought in the Creek war and was one of those who 
periled his life crossing the river in the Battle of the Horse Shoe. 

^ Cong. Doc. 292, No^ 286, pp. 6 and 7. 

" Other instances of outrages are described in Cong. Doc. 208, No. 57, 
page 7. 



President Refuses Protection to the Indians 81 

determination not to remove. Devotion to established customs 
and to their ancestral homes was deeply rooted. They chose 
to bear the ills they had rather than fly to others they knew 
not of. 

When the fall Council met in 1833 it took up the discussion 1 
of the situation and the advantage to be gained by giving up 1 
their tribal identity and becoming citizens of the United States. 
A memorial was drawn up, in which, after asserting that they 
would never voluntarily give up their homes, they consented to 
satisfy Georgia by ceding part of their land on condition that 
the Federal Government protect them in the remainder until a 
definite time to be fixed by the United States, after which time 
they should become citizens of the United States.^* This memo- 
rial was dispatched to Washington by John Ross, heading a 
delegation. The reply from the executive lacked originality. 
Removal was the only remedy for their troubles. 

In the meantime there had appeared at the National Capital 
three Cherokees representing the faction favoring removal. 
Andrew Ross, the leader, suggested to the Commissioner of In- 
dian affairs that if authorized to do so, he would return to the 
Cherokee Nation and bring to Washington a delegation with 
whom a treaty could be effected for the whole or a part of the 
Cherokee territory. Andrew Ross was a man of extravagant 
tastes and an elastic code of ethics. Having become deeply in- 
volved in debt, he had easily fallen in with the intrigues of 
Benj. F. Curry who engaged him as enrolling agent for the 
amount of his debt.^^ He had enrolled for the west and ac- 
cording to a law of the nation had no legal or moral right to 
take any hand in the affairs of the eastern nation. President 
Jackson was able to overlook these small considerations, how- 
ever, and Andrew Ross's plan was accepted. It was agreed 
that if a treaty should be concluded, the United States would 
pay the expenses of the delegation. 

Returning home, Andrew Ross assembled about two dozen 
of the treaty faction at the agency and succeeded in orga- 
nizing the Treaty party with William Hicks as principal chief 
and John Mcintosh, second chief. A legislature was appointed 

» Cherokee Phoenix, October 13, 1833. 

^^ Payne Mss, 2. 



82 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

and other steps taken to supplant the regularly constituted 
government. Eight of their number, selected as a delegation 
to Washington arrived at the National Capital in May, a little 
more than two months after Ross had first broached the subject 
of removal to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This was 
quick work considering the length of the round trip which was 
made on horseback, the organization of a government and the 
selection of a group of men to represent it at a foreign capital. 
Honorable J. H. Eaton was appointed commissioner to con- 
fer with them. After negotiations were commenced he notified 
John Ross of what was being done and invited him to cooperate 
with them. The chief refused this proposal, hotly saying, "In 
the face of Heaven and earth, before God and man, I most 
solemnly protest against any treaty being entered into with 
those of whom you say one is in progress so as to affect the 
rights and interests of the Cherokee Nation East of the Missis- 
sippi River". '^ Ross then notified the Cherokee Council of the 
business in progress and a protest signed by thirteen thousand 
Cherokees was sent up to Washington and presented by the chief 
only to be disregarded under the plea that some of the signa- 
tures were fictitious.^' The proceedings continued and a pre- 
liminary treaty was drawn up, June 19, which neither Major 
Ridge nor John Ridge signed, though both were present.^'' Its 
provisions included no terms more advantageous than those 
previously offered and when it was presented to the Cherokees 
they refused to ratify it. The whole business had proved a 
fiasco so far as the Federal Government was concerned. The 
Council called to ratify it held a stormy session, for members 
of both parties attended. John Walker, Jr., one of the principal 
advocates of removal, was shot and killed while on his way home 
from the meeting, and, while the motive that prompted the as- 
sassination was a personal one, the affair caused intense ex- 
citement through the Cherokee Nation. Accusation, recrimina- 
tion and threats were freely bandied about and a tribal war 
seemed imminent. The tact and ingenuity of the principal 
chief was taxed to the utmost to prevent further bloodshed 
and restore a measure of tranquillity to the nation. 

*r n/ " Cong. Doc. 268, No. 71, p. 6. 
" Ibid, p. 7. 
^^Cony. Doc. 393, No. 286, pp. 135, 6. 



CHAPTER X 

The Annuity Plot 

When the regular session of the Cherokee Council met at 
Red Clay in October^ excitement still ran high. The disposi- 
tion of the Federal executive to recognize the "set of unau- 
thorized individuals calling themselves the Treaty Party" 
spread consternation and aroused indignation throughout the 
main body of the tribe now beginning to call themselves the 
National party. 

A delegation was sent to Washington instructed to circum- 
vent the treaty men at all hazards. If a treaty must be made, 
as they were beginning to fear was inevitable, then it should 
be made with the regularly constituted government of the tribe. 
In the winter of 1835, therefore, two rival delegations, one 
headed by John Ross, the other by Major Ridge, again went 
up to Washington. 

The Secretar}' of War first recognized the Ross deputation, 
offering them practically the same terms as had been recently 
rejected by the Council. They declined to accept them. He 
then turned to the Ridge faction which manifested a more com- 
pliant attitude, and commissioned the Reverend J. F. Scher- 
merhorn to negotiate a treaty with them." Hearing of this 
before negotiations had been opened, Ross asked the President 
to permit him to submit a proposition for a treaty.^ The re- 
quest was granted and operations with Ridge were suspended 
for a time. It was two weeks before Ross presented his propo- 
sition which offered to cede the Cherokee Country East for 
twenty million dollars. This sum the President considered too 
exorbitant to be considered seriously and charged Ross with 
insincerity and with filibustering. In order to prove his sin- 
cerity and at the same time test the temper of the Senate, 
among whose members the Cherokees had strong friends, Ross 
next offered to allow the Senate to decide the sum tentatively, 

"■ 1834. 

2 Cong. Doc. 315, No. 130, p. 455. 

^Cong. Doc. 292, No. 286, pp. 132, 133. 



84 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

the question ultimately to be submitted to the Cherokee Nation.* 
This move proved an unfortunate one for John Ross and the 
Cherokees. His proposal was at once accepted and a statement 
of all the facts in the case in the form of a memorial was sent 
to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs with Senator King 
of Georgia as chairman. In less than a week the Secretary of 
War informed Chief Ross that in the opinion of the Senate 
not more than five million dollars should be paid the Cherokees 
for their possessions east of the Mississippi River. He then 
invited the Ross delegation to enter into negotiations on that 
basis. The invitation was declined.^ 

Meanwhile, in order to make assurance doubly sure, Presi- 
dent Jackson had ordered Schermerhorn to proceed with the 
negotiations with the opposing party. On February 28 an 
agreement was drawn up with them in which the consideration 
for the Cherokee lands east was fixed at four million, five hun- 
dred thousand dollars. This treaty was taken up after Ross 
had rejected the Senate proposition and, on March 14, was 
signed with the express stipulation that it should receive the 
approval of the Cherokee people in full Council assembled be- 
fore it should be considered binding. 

President Jackson's next concern was to have the treaty 
ratified. To this end he issued an address to the Cherokees, 
calling them "Brothers," inviting them to a calm consideration 
of their condition and prospects and urging upon them the 
benefit certain to inure to their nation by the ratification of 
the treaty and their removal to the western country.*"' This 
address he dispatched by Mr. Schermerhorn, who had been ap- 
pointed Commissioner to complete the negotiations of the treaty 
in the Cherokee Nation.^ 

The Treaty delegation, realizing their personal safety was 
at stake, had hastened home, arriving ten days or two weeks 

* Ibid, p. 141. 

* Ibid, p. 14.3. 
« Ibid, p. 41. 

' General William Carroll was appointed on the commission also, but 
on account of an affliction of rheumatism was unable to proceed to the 
Cherokee Nation. So Mr. Schermerhorn was left to conduct the negotia- 
tions alone. 



The Annuity Plot 85 

in advance of their rivals, and promptly undertaken to get 
the reins of government into their own hands. As they were 
now practically the agents of the Federal Government they 
looked to its officials for support, nor did they look in vain. 
Major Curry, who was still holding up the annuities and using 
them as a pretext to call the Indians together for the purpose 
of urging removal, circulated the notice for a meeting to be 
held at the head of the Coosa® River, the first Monday in May, 
with the object of determining in what manner the annuities 
should be paid. The Treaty men called a meeting for the same 
time and place to explain what had been done at Washington. 
It was hoped, by confusing the two calls, to collect a large 
crowd, make a display of popularity for the Treaty men and 
give them control of the purse strings and the upper hand 
in the government which they could use for their own protec- 
tion and for furthering the plans of the administration. 

The meeting proved a failure in spite of Curry's threat 
to pay the annuities to the person selected at that place, even 
if there should be only four in attendance. Fewer than a 
hundred were present, of whom twenty-five or thirty were 
Cherokees, chiefly emigrants, and the remainder Georgians. 
No vote was attempted. A less persistent and resourceful man 
would have acknowledged himself defeated. Not so Major 
Curry. He merely posted the notice of another meeting to 
be held at the same place on July 20 for the purpose of de- 
termining in what manner the annuities should be paid.^ 

In the meantime Mr. Ross returned to the Cherokee Nation ~1 
to find his family ejected by an enterprising Georgian who had 
drawn their home in the land lottery,^" and the people in much j 
confusion and perplexity of mind over the reports of the treaty. J> 

A council which he called to meet at Red Clay the second 
week in May was well attended. A vote taken on the New 
Echota Treaty and the payment of the annuities showed that 
the Indians had changed their minds on neither subject. 

^ In the neighborhood of Ridge's home ; Payne Mss. 2, p. 398. 

« Payne Mss. 2, pp. 279-290. 

^°Cong. Doc. 292, No. 286, p. 10. Mr. Ross's family sought refuge 
beyond the borders of Georgia within the limits of Tennessee, where they 
lived in a log cabin until 1838. 



86 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

Immediately on the adjournment of the Council Mr. Ross 
went up to the agency to see what would be done about the 
payment of annuities. While at Washington he had been in- 
formed that the money was in the hands of Lieutenant Bate- 
man ready to be turned over as soon as the Cherokees had fully 
determined upon the manner in which they should be paid. 
Bateman informed him that a vote would have to be taken 
at the meeting in July on the Coosa, and the money would then 
be paid over even if there should not be more than ten present. 
. The reason of this choice of meeting place was not far to seek. 
j It was in Georgia, in range of the Georgia Guard, and the 
chiefs could not attend without danger of arrest. Whispered 
threats had been circulated with the express purpose of keeping 
them away. The Indians who atcnded would therefore be influ- 
enced by the Treaty party and the annuity could then fall an 
easy prize to that faction. It was expected that the majority 
of the people would follow the purse. 

While Ross was still at his brother's^^ in the vicinity of the 
Agency, the President's emissary, Mr. Schermerhorn, arrived 
and immediately set about prosecuting his mission with a zeal 
worthy of a better cause. He first requested an interview with 
the Principal Chief. It was cheerfully granted. During the 
conversation the Commissioner expressed a desire to meet the 
leading men of the tribe, saying "I would deem myself extremely 
fortunate if I could in any way be the means of bringing to- 
gether and to a general close by a treaty the unhappy difficul- 
ties existing between you and the United States."^- Ross de- 
clared his willingness to arrange such a meeting to be held at 
Red Clay. The Commissioner hesitated, and after consulting 
Avith Agent Curry, declined, insisting upon meeting them on 
July 20 at Ridge's. 

It now seemed perfectly obvious that neither the Commis- 
sioner nor the Agent was acting in good faith. A full attend- 
ance at the meeting was neither expected nor desired. The 
time selected was inconvenient. The Indians but lately re- 
turned from the call Council were occupied in making their 

" Lewis Ross. 

"Payne Mss. 2, p. 381. 



The Annuity Plot 87 

crops. The country, two hundred miles long by seventy wide, 
had to be traversed by runners and retraversed by the people 
within ten days. Moreover the people must bring with them 
provisions of food which had to be gathered and prepared. 
The Nationalists saw through the scheme and determined to 
thwart it. They dispatched messengers to all parts of the 
Nation requesting the people to assemble at Two Run" on the 
evening of July 19 if possible. The message was obeyed 
promptly and the people began preparations for the journey. 
As the time of meeting approached the weather grew threaten- 
ing. A heavy cloud enveloped the mountain tops and on July 19 
a cold rain began to fall. It must have seemed to the Cherokees 
that the very elements were leagued against them. On the 
night appointed small parties met at the appointed place. 
Early the next morning two large parties arrived, one of four 
or five hundred from the neighborhood of Second Chief 
Lowrey's, who was among them. Many of these were old men 
who had traveled the hundred miles on foot. Other parties 
appeared from time to time until the number was swelled to 
more than two thousand. 

Curry and Schermerhorn had reckoned without their host. 
Astonishment, consternation, and fear seized upon their camp 
which was a mere handful compared with the great throng 
gathering from all parts of the Cherokee Nation. By nine 
o'clock an orderly audience, gathered at the place of meeting, 
awaited the arrival of Major Curry who was a guest at the 
home of John Ridge near by. The raw and gloomy day wore 
on and still he did not appear. Ross finally sent a messenger 
beseeching him to come as soon as possible and relieve the 
people from exposure to the inclement weather by transacting 
promptly the business which had brought him there. At length 
he appeared and then ensued another delay as Schermerhorn 
had not yet arrived and Curry declared he could not proceed 
without him. Finally, all parties having assembled, Curry as- 
cending the platform, asked Ross if he objected to opening with 
prayer. "Certainly not", replied the Chief, "but I wish to 
open without further delay for we are overwhelmed with rain 

" A creek about two miles from Ridge's. 



88 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

and numbers". A native preacher thereupon opened with 
prayer in the Cherokee language, and a hymn in the same 
tongue followed. No sooner was the hymn started than the 
Georgia Guard struck up an accompaniment with fife and drum, 
a sort of hint it seemed to the Indians that the persuasions of 
the Bible were to be reinforced by those of the sword. The 
devotional exercises concluded, Curry proceeded to business and 
after some delay the voting began. Archilla Smith, an Arkan- 
sas Cherokee, handed the agent a resolution, proposing that 
the annuities be used for the poor and the decrepit. Mr. Ross 
here interposed declaring that the meeting had not been called 
for the purpose of legislation. They were not in Council assem- 
bled to determine what to do with the money when they got it. 
To his mind the only question that could be put to them was one 
upon the act of Congress as to whether it should be paid the 
treasurer already appointed by them to receive it or whether 
each man would receive his own share. After another delay 
the voting finally began and proceeded under Major Curry's 
direction. As the Indians came up to cast their ballots Curry 
asked them if they did not want money and complained of the 
"bush speeches" made to mislead them, alluding, of course, to 
Ross whom he accused of secretly influencing them. They met 
his questions and insinuations with silence or a few terse words 
in their own language, which he could not understand, and pro- 
ceeded to cast their votes. 

The voting did not get beyond one district the first day. 
Towards evening Schermerhorn, fearing the failure of all his 
schemes, expressed the desire to speak to the people on the sub- 
ject of his business to the nation. Ross insisted on proceeding 
with the regular business. The people were exposed to every 
sort of discomfort, and they were not provisioned for a long 
stay. The Indians themselves objected. They wanted to get 
through with the business in hand and return to their homes and 
their waiting crops. The commissioner overruled all pro- 
tests, however, and insisted upon being heard the next 
day, promising to subsist^* them at government expense. 
When morning came he mounted the platform and proceeded 

^"■Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120, p. ^56. 



The Annuity Plot 89 

to address them for three hours and twenty minutes, cautioning 
the people against listening to bad birds bringing bad reports 
to excite prejudice against him, and treating them to a short 
history of himself and how he had become acquainted with his 
friend, President Jackson. He had stopped at Jackson's house 
for a call one day, and while there his horse had suddenly 
sickened and died, whereupon the President had sent him on his 
way rejoicing on a better steed and a finer mission. From his 
earliest recollections it had been the dream of his ambition to 
be useful to the Indians. His dream was coming true: as the 
President's representative he had come with a great message 
to them. He entreated them to "take warning from the fate of 
the tribes of the North and emigrate and live ; not like them 
remain and rot."^^ He assured them that it was the part of 
wisdom to accept the treaty and five million dollars for their 
Nation. "Take this money, for if you do not the bordering 
states will forthwith turn the screw tighter and tighter till you 
are ground to powder. And look not for mercy, for the 
measures of the present ruler of America will not change with 
his successor whom I know as I do myself. Do you complain 
of wrongs.^ Remove and you can retaliate. If the white man 
here oppress you, there you can oppress him. If he sticks you 
here, you can stick him there."^** 

This harangue ended, the voting was continued but not 
finished that day. When night began to fall the Indians with- 
drew to the camp ground where temporary tents were made by 
covering a framework of poles with leafy branches. These 
tents were arranged around a hollow square in which large fires 
were lighted. Around the fires, or in the tents, the Indians 
gathered in groups to eat their scanty supper and to discuss 
the events of the day and the possibilities of the morrow. The 
scene, as described by John Howard Payne, who was present, 
was unique and picturesque. The firelight, casting a glow 
over the great encampment, fell upon the grave, swarthy 
faces of hundreds of men terribly in earnest concerning their 
national welfare, even their national existence, and revealed as 

"^ Payne Mss. 2, p. 390. 

" Mr. Schermerhorn, it will be remembered, was a Baptist preacher. 



90 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

the central figures of the scene the two trusted Chiefs, Ross and 
Lowrey, to whom all eyes turned for example and all ears for 
council.^^ The camp was perfectly orderly. There was no 
noise except the subdued sound of many voices in earnest con- 
versation. Finally they grew more and more indistinct until 
they finally died away into complete silence and the multitude, 
worn out with the hardships and vexations of the day, slept. 
The sky cleared, the stars came out. Their soft light dimly 
revealed the outlines of the mountain tops but the valley of 
encampment remained in shadow. 

The morning of the third day dawned clear and bright. The 
voting was continued. Curry and Schermerhorn with their 
colleagues seeing all their schemes frustrated encouraged vari- 
ous attempts to create disorder and confusion among the 
Indians. An attempt to get up a ball play for the purpose of 
distracting attention met with no response. Women were sent 
into the crowd with whiskey in the hope of creating a tumult, 
but the Indians ignored them. Several times the Georgia Guard 
mounted and galloped around the crowd to the guard house 
raising yells and starting mock pursuits. The Indians were 
on their guard. In one of these pursuits an emigrant got mixed 
up by mistake. He was released as soon as it was discovered 
he was not an Eastern Cherokee. Ross himself was not spared 
humiliating annoyances. An idiot boy took occasion to use 
insulting language to the Principal Chief. Some thought he 
had been set on to goad Ross to some act of indiscretion. The 
situation was met with such dignity and self-control as to 
appeal to the admiration of all who witnessed the incident. 

At the close of the meeting Major Curry remarked to Mr. 
Ross that the assembly was the largest body of Indians he had 
ever seen or ever expected to see together and that it was ex- 
tremely gratifying to him that so great a multitude should have 
been so orderly. To which Mr. Ross quietly replied: "Yes, I 
am most pleased with them because of the temptations which 
they have had the virtue to resist." 

" Ridge had cordially invited Ross to spend the night under shelter 
of his roof. Courteously thanking him for his kindness he declined the 
invitation saying: "Why should I fare better than my people?" And he 
insisted upon sharing the accommodations of the common lot. 



The Annuity Plot 91 

The vote as concluded on the third day stood one hundred 
and fourteen for payment to individuals as against two thou- 
sand two hundred and twenty-five for payment to the National 
Treasurer. An attempt to pass a resolution that no part of the 
money should be used as attorney's fees was put down by accla- 
mation/'"* 

^® An account of this meeting is given by John Howard Payne. Payne 
Mss. 2, pp. 379-400; Cong. Doc. 292, No. 286, p. 57. 



CHAPTER XI 

The New Echota Treaty 

During the summer and fall of 1835 Curry and Schermer- 
horn exhausted every available force to secure consent to a 
treaty, going so far as to importune the legislatures of Ten- 
nessee and Alabama to pass laws prohibiting Cherokees, ejected 
from their possessions in Georgia, from taking up residence in 
those states, Curry openly alleging it to be the policy of the 
United States to make the situation so miserable as to drive the 
Indians into a treaty or abandonment of the country.^ Indians 
were arrested and thrown into jail on the slightest excuse or 
none at all, held Avithout trial and dismissed without explanation 
at the pleasure of the Georgia guard." 

For the express purpose of depleting the population of the 
eastern nation and weakening its government, thereby render- 
ing it more amenable to the state and Federal policy. Agent 
Curry now redoubled his efforts in the direction of enrollment, 
halting at no methods to secure individual consent, or semblance 
of consent to emigrate. To this end he allowed whiskey to be 
brought into the Cherokee country and used freely among the 
Indians although their own laws forbade it ; exercised the coars- 
est kind of intrigue among the more ignorant and helpless and 
where everything else failed he used force in securing enroll- 
ment. As evidence in this indictment there is the incident of 
Atahlah Anosta, a full-blood who, while drunk, was induced to 
enroll against the wishes of his wife and children. When the 
time came for him to leave for Arkansas he absconded. A 
guard sent to fetch him arrested his wife and children and drove 
them through a cold rain to the agency where they were de- 
tained under guard until the woman agreed to emigrate.^ 
There is also the story of Sconatachee, an Indian over eighty 
years of age, whose consent to register had been secured during 
a fit of drunkenness into which he had been inveigled by Curry's 

"■ Cong. Doc. 282, No. 286, p. 8. 
^ Ibid, p. 6 ; Payne Mss. 6. 
« Ibid, p. 10. Payne Mss. 6. 



The New Echota Treaty 93 

accomplices. When he failed to appear at the time the emi- 
grants were collecting, Curry, with an interpreter, went after 
him. The Indian refused to accompany him, whereupon Curry 
drew a revolver and tried to drive the old fellow to the agency. 
Failing in this attempt he later sent a sufficient force to over- 
power and tie him hand^ and foot and thus the white haired 
chief of a once mighty race was hauled in a wagon to the 
agency like a hog to market. 

But neither these measures nor others which the Federal 
officials had yet been able to devise seemed to incline the 
Indians to emigrate nor to render them more friendly to a 
treaty. Convinced that he was making poor headway, the com- 
missioner finally wrote the Secretary of War suggesting that 
a treaty be concluded with a part of the nation only, should 
one with the whole be found impracticable. In reply, he was 
advised that if a treaty could not be concluded upon fair and 
open terms, he must abandon the effort and leave the nation to 
the consequences of its own stubbornness.^ But Mr. Scher- 
merhorn, familiar with Jacksonian methods of dealing with the 
Indians," was able to read between the lines, and face to face 
with the fact that he must bring the Cherokees to terms very 
soon or lose favor with the President, he began to plan his 
course of action regardless of instructions, confident that a 
successful treaty would meet with executive approval and no 
questions asked. 

As time for the October Council drew near, interest became 
centered in the proposed treat3\ The Indians seemed to con- 
sider the approaching meeting of vital importance, and the 
attendance bade fair to be unusually large. Full-bloods from 
remote settlements, confused by rumors from various sources 
about a proposed ti'eaty, and fearful of being led into a false 
situation by ignorance or intrigue, determined to consult INIr. 
Ross on the subject before Council convened. 

On the morning of October 11,^ 1835, an interesting scene 

in the Cherokee drama was played. The place was a log cabin 

* Cong. Doc. 282, No. 286, p. 10. 

"Secretary of War to Schermerhorn, Sept. 26, 1835. Indian Office 
Manuscript Records; National Intelligencer, May 24, 1838. 
« Schermerhorn to Secretary of War, Sept. 10, 1835. 
' Council met October 12. 



94 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

meet him Mr. Ross went foward with grave dignity to give them 
his hand in greeting. The salutation over the old men remained 
near the Principal Chief while the rest of the company withdrew 
to different parts of the enclosure, some to repose Turk fashion 
on the ground with their backs against trees, others to sit upon 
logs, and still others, on the top of the rail fence. All eyes were 
fixed upon Chief Ross as he presently began to address them on 
the subject of their quest, while an interpreter stood ready to 
translate into Cherokee sentence by sentence.*^ After explain- 
ing the provisions of the proposed treaty he told them plainly 
his opinion of it. According to his belief the terms it offered 
were not liberal enough and if they held off a while longer a 
fairer price could be obtained for their lands. 

When he had finished speaking the men arose and as if with 
one impulse began to circle round the speaker expressing their 
approval of him by exclamations and ejaculations in the Indian 
language.^ Then an old man raising his voice above the noise 
of the multitudes spoke a few terse sentences, after which each 
one went for his pack and the march to the council ground was 
resumed. The dignity and solemnity of the occasion pro- 
foundly impressed all who witnessed the scene.® 

When Council convened in October Mr. Schcrmerhorn and 
Mr. Curry were on hand to urge the merits of the treaty drawn 
up at Washington in the early spring. Their hopes ran high 
if we are to credit their correspondence at this time, their inten- 
tion being to create a division in the National party, a part of 
whom could then be won over by hook or crook to unite with the 
Ridge faction in ageeing to the treaty.^ But they were doomed 
to surprise and disappointment for the unexpected again hap- 
pened. The two factions had come together, as they had been 
trying to do since the Ridge meeting in June, and had agreed 
to bury in oblivion all unkindly feelings and to act unitedly 

" While Mr. Ross spoke the Cherokee language in conversation with 
the Indians he made all his addresses in English and had them interpreted. 

' This was in accordance with an ancient custom. 

^ A description of this event is to be found in an unsigned letter be- 
lieved to have been written by John Howard Payne in the Cherokee Mss. 
Collection, Tahlequah, Okla. 

" Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120, p. 485. Schermerhorn to Cass, Oct. 12, 1835. 



The New Echota Treaty 95 

his opinion of it. According to his belief the terms it offered 
were not liberal enough and if they held off a while longer a 
fairer price could be obtained for their lands. 

When he had finished speaking the men arose and as if with 
one impulse began to circle round the speaker expressing their 
approval of him by exclamations and ejaculations in the Indian 
language.^ Then an old man raising his voice above the noise 
of the multitudes spoke a few terse sentences, after which each 
one went for his pack and the march to the council ground was 
resumed. The dignity and solemnity of the occasion pro- 
foundly impressed all vrho witnessed the scene." 

When Council convened the next da}' Mr. Schermerhorn and 
Mr. Curry were on hand to urge the merits of the treaty drawn 
up at Washington in the early spring. Their hopes ran high 
if we are to credit their correspondence at this time, their inten- 
tion being to create a division in the National party, a part of 
whom could then be won over by hook or crook to unite with the 
Ridge faction in agreeing to the treaty.^^ But they were doomed 
to surprise and disappointment, for the unexpected again hap- 
pened. The two factions had come together, as they had been 
trying to do since the Ridge meeting in June, and had agreed 
to bury in oblivion all unkindly feelings and to act unitedly 
in arranging with the United States a treaty for the relief of 
the nation.^" As a result the Schermerhorn treaty was re- 
jected unanimously by the Council, the Ridges and Boudinot 
using their influence against it. The astonished commissioner 
in reporting the affair to the Secretary of War acknowledged 
his disappointment in the unadvised and unexpected course 
taken by the Ridges, explaining it on the ground that they had 
become discouraged in contending with the power of Ross ; he 
thought perhaps some consideration of personal safety may 
have had its influence also. "But," he piously observed, "the 
Lord is able to overrule all things for good."^^ His chief hope 

® This was in accordance with an ancient custom. 

" A description of this event is to be found in an unsigned letter be- 
lieved to have been written by John Howard Payne in the Cherokee Mss. 
Collection, Tahlequah, Okla. 

" CoiKj. Doc. 315, No. 120, p. 485. Schermerhorn to Cass, Oct. 12, 1835. 

^ Cong. Doc. 292, No. 28G, p. 82. 

^^ National Intelligencer, May 24, 1828. 



96 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

in accomplishing a treaty now lay in the fear, on the part of the 
Indians, of Georgia legislation. Alabama and Tennessee, he 
thought, would pass some wholesome laws to quicken their move- 
ments/* In order that he might have assurance of executive 
approval of steps already taken and support in occupying 
higher ground, Mr. Schermerhorn sent Major Curry on to 
Washington "with private dispatches of a confidential nature 
to the President and Secretary of War, part of which were 
verbal. ^^' 

In the glow of good feeling attending. the reconciliation of 
the two factions, the Council passed a resolution providing for 
a committee of twenty members to be chosen from both parties 
and empowered to arrange a treaty with the commissioner in 
the Cherokee Nation or at Washington.^" John Ridge and 
Elias Boudinot were appointed members of this committee. Upon 
consulting Mr. Schermerhorn and finding that he had no 
authority to treat with them upon any other basis than the 
treaty just rejected the committee prepared to set out for 
Washington. But trouble was brewing among the newly recon- 
ciled parties. The Treaty men began to think that they were 
not sufficiently recognized on the committee and that due con- 
sideration had not been shown them by the Council. These 
and other grievances of a personal nature furnished fuel to the 
smouldering embers of factional enmity which were soon fanned 
into a blaze by assiduous Federal and state agents. Accusa- 
tions and recriminations became the order of the day and 
resignations of the Ridge men from the committee naturally 
followed. First John Ridge resigned, and then Boudinot, and 
they were soon won back to their alliance with Mr. Schermer- 
horn. It would be interesting to know just how it was effected. 

On the eve of the departure of the Nationalists for Wash- 
ington Mr. Ross was seized by the Georgia Guard on the plea 
that he was a white man residing in the Indian country and 
conducted across the Georgia line where he was held for some 
time.^^ The charge was too absurd to deceive any one, however, 

" Coriff. Doc. 315, No. 120, pp. 484 and 485. 

" Ibid, p. 485 ; also, 120. 

" Ibid, p. 484. 

" Curry to Cass, Nov. 3, 1835. Indian Office Letter 835, 1836. 



The New Echota Treaty 97 

and he was finally released without trial or explanation. All 
his private correspondence, as well as the proceedings of Coun- 
cil, were seized at the same time and searched for incriminating 
evidence which would justify his removal from the scene of 
action. With him out of the way it was thought the Indians 
would be more easily managed. At the same time John Howard 
Payne, who was the guest of Ross and was in the nation for the 
purpose of collecting historical and ethnological material re- 
lating to the tribe, was seized and all his manuscripts rifled. 
A few weeks before this the Cherokee Phoenix had been sup- 
pressed and its plant seized and carried off by the Georgia 
Guard at the instigation of Major Curry, who saw that it was 
thereafter run in the interest of removal.^* 

Before leaving Red Clay, in October, Mr. Schermerhorn 
had posted on the walls of the council house notice of a meeting 
to be held at New Echota, the third week in December, for the 
purpose of agreeing to the terms of a treaty. The notice was 
accompanied by the threat that those who failed to attend 
would be counted as assenting to any treaty that might be 
made, and the promise that all who should attend would be 
subsisted at government expense. Threats and promises, how- 
ever, proved of little avail, and when the proceedings opened 
there were present not more than three hundred Indians, men 
women and children. Of these a good many were emigrants, 
and none of them were principal officers of the Cherokee Nation. 
Curry, who had returned from Washington, evidently with the 
assurance of executive support, proceeded to carry things with 
a high hand, openly threatening any one who had come there 
to oppose the treaty agreement.^^ At Mr. Schcrmerhorn's sug- 
gestion a committee of twenty was selected from among those 
present to confer with him as to details of a treaty. When it was 
reported to the people for their vote, the ballot showed seventy- 
nine in favor and seven against it."" A delegation of thirteen 
was appointed to accompany the commissioner to Washington 
for the purpose of urging the ratification of the treaty, and 
clothed with power to assent to any alterations made necessary 

i« Payne Mss. 2. 

" Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120, p.513. 

'^ Ibid. 



98 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

by the President or Senate. Mr. Schermerhorn immediately 
wrote the Secretary of War of his success, exulting in the belief 
that John Ross was at last prostrate, the power of the nation 
having been taken from him as well as. the money,"^ He was 
now a Sampson shorn of his locks. 

The treaty-- provided tliat the Cherokee Nation cede all its 
remaining territory east of the Mississippi River for the sum 
of four million five hundred dollars and a common joint interest 
in the country occupied by the Western Cherokees, with the 
addition of a small tract on the northeast. The Cherokees 
were to be paid for their improvements and removed and 
subsisted for a year at the expense of the United States, the 
removal to take place within two years from the ratification of 
the treaty. Provision was made for the payment of debts due 
from the Indians out of money coming to them from the 
treaty ; for the reestablishment of missions in the west ; for 
pensions to the Cherokees wounded in the services of the govern- 
ment in the War of 1812 and the Creek war; for permission 
to establish such military posts and roads in the new country 
for the use of the United States as should be deemed necessary; 
for satisfying Osage claims in the western territory and for 
bringing about a friendly understanding between the two tribes ; 
and for the commutation of all annuities into a permanent 
national fund, the interest to be placed at the disposal of the 
officers of the Cherokee Nation and by them disbursed, according 
to the will of their own people, for the care of schools and an 
orphan asylum, and for general national purposes."' It was 
signed by J. F. Schermerhorn and William Carroll as commis- 
sioners of the United States and by the committee of twenty 
on the part of the Treaty party, prominent among whom were 
Major Ridge and Elias Boudinot. 

The main body of the nation, amazed and indignant at what 

they considered the barefaced afTrontery of their tribesmen, 

stood ready to contest the treaty. Second Chief Lowrey called 

a meeting of the Council at Red Clay in January, and although 

the weather was bitterly cold and stormy, and smallpox had 

=^ Ibid, p. 495. 
^ Ibid, p. 512. 

^7 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 478 et seq. 



Thp: New Echota Treaty 99 

broken out in one district over four hundred persons were 
present. Those who were detained sent in votes by friends and 
neighbors."* A resolution passed, denouncing the methods used 
by the commissioners and dccLaring the treat}' null and void, 
was signed by upwards of twelve thousand Cherokees and for- 
warded to Washington. This protest with one signed by three 
thousand two hundred and fifty residing in North Carolina was 
presented to Congress b}' the Ross delegation, for while the 
Executive had shown too plain a hand in the game to leave any 
doubt as to what course he would now pursue it was still 
believed that the National Legislature would not stand for the 
methods used when the facts in the case became known. But 
in spite of the strenuous opposition against the ratification of 
the treaty it passed the Senate by a majority of one vote and 
was promptly signed and proclaimed by the President May 23, 
1836.''' The treaty allowed the nation two j^ears in which to 
remove and no time was lost by the administration in taking 
preliminary steps to carry it into execution. To Governor 
Lumpkin of Georgia and Governor Carroll of Tennessee who 
had been instrumental in bringing it about was given the com- 
mission to supervise and direct the execution of the treaty, 
while Benj . F. Curry was made superintendent of removal. The 
details of graft which crop out in the correspondence of the 
time as found in the official records prove that the removal of 
the Indians provided many a fat job for place hunters and 
friends of influential politicians on good terms with the admin- 
istration. Many a political debt was paid with the capital 
furnished by the sale of tlie Cherokee Nation, East."" 

"^Cong. Doc. 292, No. 286, p. 118 ff. 
^7 U. 8. Statutes at Large, p. 478. 

-^Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120. Numerous letters to the President and 
Secretary of War. 



CHAPTER XII 

Opposition to the Treaty 

Mr. Ross remained in Washington until after the treaty 
passed the Senate, hoping that either sentiment against it or 
some technicahty might defeat it. Seeking an interview with 
President Jackson he was bluntly informed that the Executive 
had ceased to recognize any existing government among the 
Eastern Cherokees. 

On March 26 he wrote home advising his people to ignore 
the treaty but to remain quiet/ A copy of this letter falling 
into the hands of his enemies was exploited as evidence of the 
Chief's intention to resist the treaty and called forth bitter 
denunciation from Federal and state officials who persisted in 
asserting that the majority of the Cherokees were in favor of 
removal and that all the trouble was due to Ross's efforts to 
arouse them to resistance." Rumors of a brewing insurrection 
supported by an anonymous letter warning white men in the 
Cherokee country of a plan to attack and drive them from the 
nation alarmed the administration and horrified the neighboring 
states. "When white men fight for home and country they are 
lauded as the noblest of patriots," says Miss Abel; "Indians 
doing the same thing are stigmatized as savages. What a 
fortunate and convenient excuse the doctrine of manifest des- 
tiny has proved."^ 

But, as a matter of fact, the Indians had no intention of 
resorting to arms, as they attempted to prove by a meeting of 
representatives of the mountain districts held at Hiwassee in 
the summer of 1836, where they drew up resolutions stating 
the condition of their people and showing the futility of armed 
resistance. They had no military system, they said, no military 
supplies. The scalping knife and tomahawk had been buried 
half a century, while the love of war and the practice of it had 
become obsolete. A number of their old men still survived who 

^Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120, p. 679. 

' Ibid, p. 599. 

*Abel, Indian Consolidation, p. 266. 



Opposition to the Treaty 101 

had spilled their blood and had seen their brothers fall beside 
the Chief Magistrate of the United States; but their young 
men had never known war, had never heard the war whoop, nor 
"viewed the pitiless carnage of battle which wrings with hope- 
less agony the hearts of mothers, sisters and friends."* 

This protest with others of like tenor from different parts 
of the Cherokee country failed to restore public confidence and 
General Wool with an army of seven thousand men was sent 
late in July to overawe the Indians and to "frown down opposi- 
tion to the treaty."^ In two meetings held soon after his arrival 
in North Carolina, where dwelt the least civilized portion of the 
tribe, he found the people peaceable but firmly opposed to the 
treaty. When they evaded the question of whether they would 
remove willingly he issued the ultimatum of peace or war, 
remove or fight. When they expressed the wish to consult 
John Ross the privilege was denied them on the ground that 
Ross had led them astray from their interests and happiness 
too long by his pernicious counsels. General Wool, they were 
told, was hereafter the most proper person to advise them.^ No 
decisive action having been taken when the meetings broke up, 
he sent out and overtook the chiefs, held them prisoners over 
night and released them only after they had promised to obey 
the treaty and send their young men in to surrender their 
arms. He reported to the Secretary of War that nineteen- 
twentieths if not ninety-nine out of every one hundred of the 
North CaroHna Cherokees were opposed to the treaty and 
would not comply with it unless compelled to do so by military 
force, and asked that additional troops be sent to his assis- 
tance.^ 

Jackson's second term was now nearing its close and the 
Cherokees encouraged by friends in Congress entertained some 
expectation of relief from the next administration. In the 
summer of 1836 Mr. Ross had written a friend that if Mr. Clay 
and Mr. Frelinghuysen were elected it would be a godsend to the 

^ Niles' Register 50, p. 383. 
^National Intelligencer, May 24, 1838. 
« Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120, p. 170. 
' Ibid, p. 629, 



102 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

country at large as well as to the poor Indian.® Trusting to 
this forlorn hope the Indians held on, and removal came almost 
to a standstill. Announcements posted throughout the Cher- 
okee Nation that a handsome steamboat stood ready to trans- 
port them in ease and luxury to the new country aroused no 
enthusiasm. Published addresses describing in the most allur- 
ing terms all the delights which the Cherokees could secure by 
removal and offering advantages the most exciting made no 
impression. Garbled documents attempting to prove that Chief 
Ross himself had consented to remove were unheeded. Com- 
plaints went up to Washington again and again that the Cher- 
okees "would not come in.'"* 

The Council of 1836 adopted resolutions denouncing the 
motives of the United States commissioner in making the 
treaty, declaring the treaty null and void and asserting that it 
could never in justice be enforced upon the nation.^" In a 
memorial to the President praying for an impartial statement 
of the negotiations of the treaty they piteously invoked the "God 
of truth to tear away every disguise and concealment from their 
case, the God of justice to guide the President's determination, 
and the God of mercy to stay the hand of their brothers up- 
lifted for their destruction.'"^ A copy of this memorial and the 
resolutions transmitted to the Secretary of War by General 
Wool so enraged President Jackson that he expressed his sur- 
prise that an officer in the army should have received or trans- 
mitted a paper so disrespectful to the Executive, the Senate 
and the Amercian people; declared his settled determination 
that the treaty should be carried out without modification and 
with all consistent dispatch, and directed that, after a copy of 
the letter should have been transmitted to Ross, no further 
communication by mouth or writing should be held with him 
concerning the treaty. It was further directed that no council 
should be permitted to assemble to discuss the treaty.^" The 

® Cherokee Mss. Collection, Tahlequah, Okla. 

* Letter of John Ross in Cherokee Mss. Collection. 

" Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120, p. 798. Payne Mss. 5, Gen. Order, No. 74, 

^ Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120, p. 807. 

" Ibid, pp. 186, 190. Report of Indian Commissioner, 1836, p. 285. 



Opposition to the Treaty 103 

President was determined that the treaty he had secured with 
so much difficulty should not miscarry in its execution. 

But the Cherokees, far from convinced, kept up a vigorous 
campaign against the so-called treaty. In order to enlist the 
help of their western brethren and unite the efforts of the two 
nations, the Council of this year had appointed a delegation, of 
Avhich Mr. Ross was a member, to visit the western nation. The 
United States agents had no intimation of this action until the 
delegation had already set out for the west. Major Curry, 
furious at being outwitted, communicated with the commis- 
sioner of Indian affairs who promptly sent strict orders to 
Fort Gibson to have the principal chief arrested if he should 
appear there and begin inciting the Indians to oppose the 
treaty.'^ 

Mr. Ross, with rare tact and diplomacy, paid a friendly 
visit to Agent Stokes of the western nation at Bayou Menard 
and completely disarmed the old man with his amiable, quiet 
manner,^* won over the chief, John Jolly, succeeded in gaining 
the promise of the western nation to oppose the treaty and 
secured the appointment of a delegation to Washington to 
protest against it. This done, he and his party quietly de- 
parted and reached home, having eluded and outwitted the 
United States authorities, much to their anger and chagrin." 

Having secured the cooperation of the western nation a 
delegation went on to Washington to see what effect their com- 
bined forces might have upon the new administration. On 
March 16 they addressed a communication through Secretary 
Poinsett to the President asking for a hearing, requesting that 
their claims might be investigated, that the rightful authorities 
be dealt with and that the results of the investigation be sub- 
mitted to the Cherokee Nation. ^^ The Secretary of War re- 
plied that the treaty of New Echota had been ratified con- 
stitutionally, but that any measures suggested by them would 
receive candid examination, if not consistent with the treaty. ^^ 

^'Cong. Doc. 315, No. 130, p. 774; also, 685. 
" Ibid. 

^® This was in January, 1837. 
r ^« Cong. Doc. 315, No. 99, pp. 18-25. 
" Ibid, p. 24. 



10-i John Ross axd the Cherokee Indians 

President Van Buren granted Mr. Ross and the delegation an 
intervieAV at Avhich he treated them politely, even cordially, but 
told them frankly that nothing could be done to alter or amend 
the treaty. 

Meanwhile the condition of the Indians had been growing 
steadily worse. General Wool describes the whole scene in the 
Cherokee country as heartrending and such a one as he would 
be glad to get rid of as soon as circumstances would permit. The 
white men were hovering like vultures watching to pounce upon 
their prey and strip them of everything they had. He pre- 
dicted that ninety-nine out of every hundred would go penniless 
to the west.^^ "I am surprised," he said, "that the Cherokees 
have not risen in their might and destroyed every resident white 
man in the country.'"^ General Dunlap in command of the East 
Tennessee troops called out to quell the rumored insurrection in 
1836, soon found that the Indians, not the whites, needed pro- 
tection, in furnishing them which he excited the hatred of the 
lawless rabble of Georgia who, he declared, had long played the 
part of petty tyrants. He finally decided he would never dis- 
honor the Tennessee arms in a servile service by aiding in carry- 
ing into execution at the point of a bayonet a treaty made by a 
lean minority against the will and authority of the Cherokee 
people, and disbanding his brigade he went home in disgust."" 

Even the members of the Treaty party to whom the govern- 
ment was deeply indebted did not go scatheless. Returning 
from Washington after the final arrangements of the treaty 
had been completed they found their plantations taken and 
suits instituted against them for back rents on their own 
farms. They were in danger day and night from the rabble 
who flogged Indian men, women and children with hickories 
and clubs, even constables and justices of the peace being con- 
cerned in the mistreatment. Major Ridge in a letter to the 
President declared that unless given protection by the United 
States the Indians would carry nothing with them to their new 

18 Ibid, p. 648. 
" Ibid, p. 82. 
r "'"National Intelligencer, May 24, 1838. 



Opposition to the Tu 



KATV 105 



homes but the scars of the lash on their backs.-' Tlirou^'li nil 
their afflictions and tribuhvtions, however, tlu' Inciinns rciimin.d 
so consistently opposed to emigration that not one of tlieni who 
attended the meeting called by General Wool in January, IH.'JT, 
would receive rations or clothing from the United States for 
fear they might compromise themselves, preferring to live uj)on 
the roots and the sap of trees. Thousands of them had no nth.r 
food for weeks. 

John Mason, who w^as sent in July, 1837, as a confidcnl ial 
agent of the War Department to investigate conditions among 
the Indians, was convinced that opposition to the treaty was 
unanimous, irreconcilable and sincere. The Cherokees claimed 
that they did not make the treaty and it could not bind them ; 
that it was made by a few unauthorized individuals and the 
nation was not a party to it. With all his influence with tiiem, 
and jNIason believed that the mass of the nation, especially the 
mountain Indians, would stand or fall witli their chief,"- Ross 
could not stem the tide of sentiment against removal. If he had 
advised the Cherokees at this time to acknowledge the treaty 
he would have forfeited their confidence and probably his life.'^ 
His influence was constantly exerted to preserve peace, the 
reports of his enemies to the contrary notwithstanding. Oppo- 
sition to the treaty was sincere and sprang from a love of 
country and was not a political game played b}' Ross to main- 
tain his ascendency in the tribe. When Colonel Lindsay who 
succeeded General Wool"* was given authority in the summer 
of 1837 to arrest Ross and turn him over to the civil authorities 
if he did anything further to encourage the Cherokees in their 
hostilities to removal, he sought in vain for some excuse to 
carry out his instructions. 

Regardless of threats a council was called for July 31 to 
which Mr. Mason was dispatched with instructions to traverse 
and correct any misstatements that might be made by John Ross 

•^ Gang. Doc. 315, No. 120, p. 607. 

=° The Treaty party had already gone west with the exception of those 
who had remained to assist the Government in carrying out the treaty. 
National Intelligencer, May 24, 1838. 
U ^ Cong. Doc. 325, No. 82, pp. 3-5. 

=*May, 1837. 



106 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

and his followers,"^ and, if need be, prohibit the assembling of 
the CounciL 

Mr. Ross met these trying situations with a quiet dignity 
of manner, a strength of purpose and a clearness of brain that 
could not but inspire with confidence the minds of the harassed 
multitude of Indians who came to rely upon him with a respect 
and affection akin to reverence. At his humble home in Ten- 
nessee he dispensed hospitality to high and low without dis- 
crimination, and to the poor full-bloods who were reduced to 
desperate straits he was not only a chief, but a brother in 
adversity. 

To the white men whose plans and schemes he had so often 
thwarted, Ross appeared in an entirely different guise. Major 
Curry regarded him with hatred beyond expression and treated 
him with a contempt that would have been unendurable to one 
of less self-control. The agent's attempts, through dark and 
devious courses, to alienate the Indians from their leader were 
notorious and his methods of dealing with the aborigines, with- 
out the shadow of honor. No one was more cordially hated and 
thoroughly feared by them. Peyton of Tennessee denounced 
him and Schermerhorn in the House in 1836 as "the two worst 
agents that could have been selected in all God's creation.""® 
His death in December, 1836, caused a sense of relief through- 
out the Cherokee Nation. It was the opinion of General Wool 
that if he had lived long enough he would have been killed by 
the Indians."^ Nathan Smith who succeeded him was a man of 
honor and integrity who finally overcame much of the preju- 
dice which he at first entertained towards Mr. Ross. 

With Governor Lumpkin it was a different story. He 
naturally had no love for the Indians who encumbered the soil 
of Georgia, saw no good in them and believed that the only 
good Indian was the dead Indian. All his racial antipathy 
seems to have become concentrated against Mr. Ross, whose 
character he assailed, whose motives he misrepresented and 
whose acts and conduct he distorted for the purpose of dis- 

^ Cong. Doc. 325, No. 99, pp. 26-32. 

'^Congressional Globe, 24th Congress, p. 477. 

'^ Gen. Wool to Sec. of War, June 3, 1837. Cong. Doc. 315, No. 120. 



Opposition to the Tkeaty 107 

countenancing him before the Federal Government. He refused 
to recognize his chieftainship and urged the government to do 
so, not on the ground of justice, but of policy, acknowledging 
that if Ross and his party were recognized the validity of the 
treaty could be called in question."^ He even went so far as to 
say that Mr. Ross ought to be "put in strings and banished from 
the country; that although a large slaveholder he was well 
qualified to fill a prominent place amongst the New England 
abolitionists or in the Republic of Hayti," and that to one of 
these places he wished to see him emigrate. He considered Ross 
the soul and spirit of the whole opposition. To the Georgian 
this Scotch Indian was a "subtle and sagacious man" who, under 
the guise of an unassuming deportment, concealed an unsur- 
passed arrogance and by his dignified, reserved manner 
"acquired credit for talents and wisdom which he never pos- 
sessed.""^ 

Fearing some change of Indian policy from the Van Buren 
administration, Mr. Lumpkin hastened to redouble his energies 
in fortifying the mind of the new executive against the strat- 
agems of the wily chief. Writing the Secretary of War in the 
summer of 1837 he warned him that Mr, Ross was the master 
spirit of opposition to the execution of the treaty on whose 
movements he would keep a watchful eye so far as circumstances 
would allow. For he was a reserved, obscure and wary politi- 
cian. ^° It is not strange therefore that the President became 
more and more reluctant to hold intercourse with Mr. Ross 
and his party. 

Pressure for removal under the supervision of Mr. Lump- 
kin^^ became more constant and uniform, but when the end of 
the year approached without any indication of an intention 
on the part of the Indians to go west, the United States com- 
missioners and agents issued a proclamation^- stating that 
according to the treaty they now had only five months in 

'^ Cong. Doc. 325, No. 83, p. 10. 

^Lumpkin, Removal of the Cherokees, pp. 229, 230. 
""Cong. Doc. 325, No. 82, p. 11. 

'^ Mr. Lumpkin entered the Senate in Dec, 1837, and from that vantage 
point wielded the fatal blows to the last lingering hopes of the Cherokees. 
^Dec. 28, 1838. 



108 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

which to remove, and they were not to be deceived by the hope 
that a longer time would be given them. The treaty, it de- 
clared, would be executed without change or alteration and 
another day beyond the time named^^ would not be allowed to 
them. They were warned to rely no longer upon John Ross 
and his friends who had been misleading them and subjecting 
them to pecuniary losses. The executive had declined all fur- 
ther intercourse with Mr. Ross and an end had been put to all 
negotiations upon the subject.^* To which the Cherokee dele- 
gation then in Washington replied in a memorial that the New 
Echota treaty was an outrage on the primary rules of national 
intercourse, as well as of the known laws and usages of the 
Cherokee Nation and was therefore destitute of any binding 
force upon them. 

"For adhering to the principles on which your great empire 
is founded, and which has advanced to its present elevation and 
glory, are we to be despoiled of all we hold dear on earth.'"' 
they asked. "Are we to be hunted through the mountains like 
wild beasts and our women and our children, our aged, our 
sick, to be dragged from their homes like culprits and packed 
on board loathsome boats, for transportation to a sickly 
clime .?"^^ 

Cherokee removal and tlie New Echota treaty called forth 
strong remonstrance from some of the greatest statesmen of 
the country who denounced the policy of the administration in 
vigorous terms. Webster and Everett of Massachusetts, Fre- 
linghuysen of New Jersey, Sprague of Maine, Storrs of New 
York, Crockett of Tennessee and Clay of Kentucky protested 
strongly against it. It became almost a party question, the 
Democrats supporting Jackson, the Whigs condemning him. 
Henry Clay considered that the chief magistrate had inflicted a 
deep wound on the American people.^" Webster remarked in the 
Senate in May, 1838, that there was a growing feeling that 
great wrong had been done the Cherokees by the treaty of New 

" May 23. 

" Cong. Doc. 329, No. 316, p. 5. 

«' Ibid, pp. 1-4. 

«* Cong. Doc. 315, 120. Letter of Henry Clay to John Gunter, Sept. 30, 



Opposition to the Treaty 109 

Ecliota.^^ "Speeches in Congress," says Benton, "were char- / 
acterized by a depth and bitterness of feeling such as have never l 
been excelled on the slavery question.""^ Calhoun of Tennessee -^ 
did not regard the New Echota treaty as a binding contract 
at all since only about twenty out of eighteen thousand assented 
to it.^'* Wise declared that it was not a bona fide treaty. The 
Cherokee Nation had never agreed to it and now almost unani- 
mously protested against it. The whole proceedings in rela- 
tion to the negotiations he declared a fraud upon the Indians. ^'^ 
Schermerhorn he stigmatized as a "raw head and bloody bones" 
to the ignorant Indians while their chiefs were at Washington 
and he had made what he called a treaty with a very small 
portion of the Cherokees. Henry A. Wise with eloquent words 
in a speech in the House paid high tribute to John Ross as the 
man who had swam the river at the battle of the Horse Shoe 
and, at the risk of his life, had brought away the canoes which 
enabled the Jackson forces to gain the victory over the Creeks. 
"And now he is turned out of his dwelling by a Georgia Guard 
and his property all given over to others. This is the faith 
of a Christian nation. John Ross is known by many members 
of the House to be an honest, intelligent man worthy to sit 
in the councils of the nation, let alone the councils of an 
Indian tribe."" His objection to the treaty. Wise considered 
an honest one, and declared that Ross, the Indian chief from 
Georgia, would at any time compare favorably in intellect 
and moral honesty with Forsythe, a member of Van Buren's 
cabinet, from the same state."*' 

A memorial of the Cherokee delegation in the winter of 
1838 was laid on the table in the Senate by a vote of 36 to 16, 
and others from citizens of New York, Pennsylvania, Massa- 
chusetts and New Jersey requesting an inquiry into the validity 
of the New Echota treaty met a similar fate in the House. Dis- 
cussions of these memorials brought out expressions of sym- 
pathy for the Indians and admiration for their principal chief 
but took no practical form for their relief. 

^' Cong. Globe, 2nd session, 25th Congress, p. 404. 

^» Benton's Thirty Years' View, Vol. I, p. 625. 
. »» Cong. Globe, 24th Congress, p. 477. 

" Ibid. 

" Cong. Globe, 25th Congress, p. 68. 

*^ Ibid. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Compulsory Removal 

Through the winter and spring of 1838 Mr. Ross con- 
tinued protesting against the validity of the treaty, remon- 
strating against its execution and seeking to secure a more 
favorable one made with the legally constituted authorities of 
the Cherokees. "We will not recognize the forgery palmed 
off upon the world as a treaty by a knot of unauthorized in- 
dividuals", he declared, "nor stir one step with reference to 
that false paper".^ And yet, although it was the wish of the 
Cherokees to remain on "the soil of their ancestors inherited 
from the common Father of us all", they were at length, under 
the necessity of circumstances, ready to go west if the Federal 
Government would pay them for their land far less than it 
asked for the wildest of its own. Removal by compulsion, he 
pointed out, would prove more expensive than a new treaty, 
and, aside from the question of the faith of treaties, the Federal 
Government could well afford to do itself and the Indians the 
justice for which they were pleading. He was supported in his 
appeals by memorials and petitions from various parts of the 
country, particularly from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, 
praying for a repeal of the Schermerhorn treaty on the ground 
that it did not represent the will of the majority of the Chero- 
kee people. 

The friends of removal in general and Mr. Lumpkin in par- 
ticular, always keenly alert and on the defensive where the 
Indian question was concerned, met these protests and peti- 
tions with arguments astonishingly naive, to say the least, when 
compared with the logical and convincing reasoning advanced 
by Chief Ross and the memorialists. The idea of submitting 
a treaty to an Indian people to be decided upon "the broadest 
basis of democracy" was scoffed at by the Senator who main- 
tained that "it ought to be sufficient to satisfy the wise and 
good everywhere that the treaty was negotiated on behalf of 

^ Letter of John Ross to Penn. House of Rep., May, 1838. Cher. Mss. 
Records, Tahlequah, Okla. 



Compulsory Removal 111 

the Cherokees by the most enlightened and patriotic Indian 
men who ever negotiated a treaty, and that it secured to the 
whole people more signal advantages than were ever before 
secured to an Indian people by treaty entered into with this 
Government"." As evidences of the superior advantages to be 
gained by removal he read to the Senate" a letter from John 
Ridge, who had already located in the west, picturing in the 
most alluring terms the beauties of the western nation, the 
richness of the soil, the healthfulness of the climate and all the 
other natural advantages which in his judgment far surpassed 
those of the Eastern Country. Why the Cherokees refused to 
emigrate to a land where such superior opportunities and ad- 
vantages awaited them was beyond the comprehension of the 
Senator from Georgia and he was of the opinion that people J 
of such poor discrimination should be treated "as minors and j 
orphans and other persons who are incompetent to take charge j 
of their own rights".* 

Unfortunately for the Cherokees, Mr. Lumpkin was more 
proficient in political manipulation than strong in logical con- 
sistency, and so alert were he and his supporters, and so strong 
their determination to carry out their Indian policy that all the 
efforts of Ross and his friends in Washington to secure the ab- 
rogation of the treaty were circumvented and blocked at every 
point, while May was fast approaching and the time drawing 
near for removing Indian encumbrance from the soil of the 
sovereign states of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. 

As for the mass of the Cherokee people, two years of threats 
and promises had failed to bring them to admit the validity 
of the treaty, or to show any inclination to emigrate of their 
own accord. The failure of their delegation to secure the re- 
peal of the treaty did not weaken their determination to stand 
for their rights. Even the threats of fresh troops sent into 
the country to put down opposition failed to terrify them into 
submission or frighten them into abandoning such haunts as 
had been spared them on account of the nature of the country, 

2 Lumpkin, Removal of the Cherokees, p. 308. 

3 May 15. Ibid, p. 201 ; National Intelligencer, May 24, 1835. 
* Lumpkin, Removal of the Cherokees, p. 198. 



112 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

and to which they stubbornly clung, unsubdued yet unre- 
^ sisting. 

When it had become perfectly evident that removal could 
j be accomplished only by sheer brute force, protests from the 
i country at large became so vehement that the administration 
began to look for a way to satisfy public sentiment without 
antagonizing the states concerned. As a result the President, 
early in May, proposed as a compromise to extend the time of 
removal two years. ^ This suggestion promptly met with such 
strong opposition from Governor Gilmer that Mr. Van Buren, 
the diplomatic, had to back out of this position as gracefully 
as he might and allow the treaty to take its course.® 

As a result of pressure brought to bear by executive ma- 
chinery between the adoption of the New Echota treaty and 
January, 1838, about two thousand Cherokees had emigrated. 
Something more than thirteen thousand remained in the Cher- 
okee Nation East, in the spring of 1838. The President, con- 
vinced that they would not remove without compulsion, dis- 
patched General Winfield Scott to the Cherokee country to 
take command of the troops already there and to collect an 
additional force comprising a regiment each of artillery and 
infantry and six companies of volunteers, a sufficient force, un- 
questionably, to overawe the disarmed and starving natives and 
ff compel submission.' In case he found it necessary, however, 
the military commander was authorized to call upon the gover- 
nors of the neighboring states for voluntary militia. 

General Scott took up his headquarters at New Echota, 
the former capital of the nation, whence he issued a procla- 
mation announcing that the President had sent him with a 
powerful army to cause the Cherokees, in obedience to the treaty 
of 1835, to join their brethren beyond the Mississippi, and be- 
fore another moon had passed every man, woman and child 
must be on the way to the west.^ 

In order to carry out his instructions to remove the Indians 
at all hazards he began enrolling and collecting them at such 

'Cong. Doc. 330, No. 421, pp. 2, 17. 

« Ibid, p. 4. 

' There were as many soldiers as adult Indians. Payne Mss. 6, pp. 13-38. 

8 Cong. Doc. 329, No. 316, p. 7. 



Compulsory Removal 113 

a rate and in such a manner as to work the greatest hardship 
upon them. Stockade forts were built at convenient places and 
squads of soldiers were sent into the surrounding country with 
guns, bayonets, swords and pistols to search every cave and 
hillside for the natives who were driven at the point of the 
bayonet and the muzzle of the musket into one of the camps. 
Accounts are given of such revolting deeds of cruelty and inhu- 
manit}^ perpetrated upon the helpless victims as seem impos- 
sible to have occurred in a civilized nation. 

Mr. Mooney, after having talked with some of the Cherokees 
who had gone through the "Reign of Terror", gives this vivid 
account of it: "Families at dinner were startled by the sudden 
gleam of bayonets in the doorway and rose up to be driven 
with blows and oaths along the weary miles of trail that led 
to the stockade. ]Men were seized in their fields, or going along 
the road, women were taken from their wheels and children 
from their plaj\ In many cases on turning for one last look 
as they crossed the ridge they saw their homes in flames fired 
by the lawless rabble that followed on the heels of the soldiers 
to loot and pillage. So keen were the outlaws on the scent that, 
in some instances, they were driving off the cattle and other 
stock of the Indians almost before the soldiers had started the 
owners in the opposite dii'ection",'* and ghouls were searching 
Indian graves for the silver pendants and other valuables 
deposited with the dead. 

In order to take the Indians completely by surprise and 
prevent all possibility of escape the soldiers were ordered to 
approach and surround the houses as noiselessly as possible. 
One aged full-blood, finding himself so surrounded, calmly called 
his household of children and grandchildren about him and 
kneeling prayed with them in their own language, the soldiers 
standing by in shamefaced astonishment. Rising from their 
devotions they were warned by the soldiers to make no needless 
preparations but to be off at once, and were hurried away each 
one carrying such necessary belongings or cherished possessions 
as he could quickly lay hands on, even the little children grasp- 
ing in their hands or hugging to their hearts some childish 

* Mooney, Myths of the Cherokees, p. 130. 



114 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

treasure — a bow and arrows, a blow gun, a string of beads or 
perhaps a battered rag baby. Those who attempted to escape 
were shot down like criminals. The story is told of a deaf boy 
who upon seeing the soldiers coming was panic stricken and 
started to run away. When he failed to respond to the order to 
halt, a musket was leveled at him and he fell lifeless to the 
ground.^" 

Those who were utterly unable to travel, the helpless aged 
and the mortally ill, were left in remote cabins to die of starva- 
tion and neglect. Children were separated from parents who, 
in some cases, never saw them again nor knew what fate befell 
them. A few women and children, warned of the coming of the 
soldiers, fled to inaccessible mountain fastnesses and hid in 
caves to perish of starvation, while the men were hunted and 
trapped like wild beasts. 

Old men, delicate women and little children were driven like 
cattle^^ until strength failed them and they fell fainting by the 
roadside. When brutal kicks and saber thrusts could not rouse 
them to further effort they were loaded into wagons and hauled 
over rough mountain roads to the stockades ; or, Avhere wagons 
were wanting, left to recover or die as they might, while friends 
and family, pricked on by the bayonet, were not permitted to 
minister to their necessity.^" 

At night sick and well were forced to lie upon the bare 
ground in the open with no protection from the weather and 
herd together ior warmth, like hogs. Not infrequently death 
relieved them from their suffering before the journey was com- 
pleted. In that case the soldiers were considered quite humane 
who stopped long enough to dig for a grave a shallow trench 
by the roadside and fling a few shovelfulls of earth over the 
lifeless body. 

Submission was the rule among the Indians, but there were 
occasional exceptions as in the case of Tsali, or Charley, an old 
man who, with his wife, a brother and three sons, two of whom 

" Payne Mss. 9, pp. 23-25. 

" The same language was used in driving them as is commonly used in 
driving cattle and hogs. 

" Payne Mss. 9, pp. 23-25. 



Compulsory Removal 115 

had families, while the third was a mere lad, were surrounded, 
taken captive by the soldiers, and men, women and children 
were started on foot to one of the stockades. Tsali's wife, a 
frail and delicate woman, unable to keep up with the others, 
was prodded on like a brute by the bayonets of the soldiers. 
The old man, goaded to desperation by the sight of this bru- 
tality and his wife's suffering, suggested to the others that they 
make a dash for liberty. As the conversation was carried on in 
Cherokee the soldiers did not understand it and when each war- 
rior suddenly leaped upon the nearest white man the surprise 
was so complete that one soldier was killed while the rest fled in 
confusion. The Indians escaped to the mountains where they 
were joined by numbers of their tribesmen who had either es- 
caped from the stockades or had succeeded in eluding the 
soldiers. 

Among them was an Indian named Euchela, who with a 
band of a hundred followers, belonged to the class of outlaws. 
Having failed in ever}^ attempt to take the fugitives by force, 
General Scott determined to try reconciliation with a part of 
them. Colonel W. H. Thomas, a trader well known to the In- 
dians, was chosen to make overtures to Euchela and his warriors, 
promising that, if they would surrender Tsali and his family, 
they would be permitted to remain in Carolina and "be at 
peace" until their case could be adjusted by the Federal Govern- 
ment. "I cannot be at peace", Euchela declared, "because it 
is now a whole year that your soldiers have hunted me like 
a wild deer. I have suffered more than I can bear. I had a 
wife and a little child, a bright eyed bo}^ and because I would 
not become your slave they were left to starve upon the moun- 
tains and I buried them with my own hands at midnight". ^^ 
Finally, however, he was induced to accept the overtures of 
General Scott, and summoning his warriors with a whoop he 
laid the proposition before them. After much hesitation they, 
too, were prevailed upon to agree to the offer. 

Tsali, hearing of this compromise and knowing that his 
fate was sealed, came in voluntarily with his brother and his 
two eldest sons and surrendered. They were tried by court- 
r "Lanman, Letters of the Allegheny Mountains, p. 110. 



116 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

martial and sentenced to be shot. Bound to the tree where he 
was to be executed the old man asked to be permitted to speak 
and the request was granted. "I am not afraid to die," he is 
reported to have said, "O no, I want to die, for my heart is 
very heavy, heavier than lead." Turning to Euchela he con- 
tinued, "But, Euchela, there is one favor I wish to ask at 
your hands. You know I have a little boy who was lost among 
the mountains. I want you to find that boy if he is not dead 
and tell him that the last words of his father were that he 
must never go beyond the Father of Waters, but die in the land 
of his birth. It is sweet to die in one's native land and be 
buried by the margin of one's native streams."^* When he had 
finished speaking the bandages were placed over his eyes and 
the execution proceeded. Some delay having occurred in the 
arrangement, he uncovered his eyes to see a dozen of his tribes- 
men in the very act of firing. Calmly and deliberately he re- 
placed the cloth and the next moment was writhing in his 
lifeblood. General Scott had commanded that a dozen Chero- 
kee prisoners be compelled to do the shooting in order to im- 
press upon the Indians the helplessness of their situation. 
Tsali's youngest son, Wasituna, was finally pardoned because 
of his youth and allowed to remain in North Carolina, thus 
fulfilling his father's wish that he might die in the land of 
his birth.^^ 

Colonel Z. A. Ziles, of the Georgia Militia, who was after- 
wards an officer in the Confederate army, in describing to Mr. 
Mooney this chapter of Cherokee history in which he himself 
took part, said, "I fought through the Civil War and have seen 
men shot to pieces and slaughtered by the thousands but the 
Cherokee removal was the crudest work I ever knew."^*' 

Conditions in the stockades were in keeping with the whole 
policy of forcible eviction. Musty corn meal and fat salt pork 
or rank bacon were the only food furnished by removal officers 
who had let the contracts for furnishing subsistence at war 
prices. This was the time of year, too, when the natives were 

"Lanman's Letters of the Allegheny Mountains, p. 113. 

" Ibid. 

"Mooney, Myths of the Cherokees, p. 131. 



Compulsory Removal 117 

accustomed to fresh fruits and vegetables in abundance. 
Women pleaded in vain for permission to go out and hunt for 
wild berries, onions and greens for their families. There was 
no milk even for the little children. Old and young, sick and 
well, were compelled to eat the corn hoe cake and the fried 
bacon or perish of starvation. 

The medical aid was hopelessly, even criminally, inadequate 
and incompetent. One of the doctors proved to be a dentist 
who drew his salary regularly, but an Indian molar, never. 
Dentists were superfluous among the Cherokees at this time. 
It was good sound medical attention the prisoners needed but 
failed to get. After several sudden deaths had occurred, the 
suspicion was aroused that the doctors were poisoning them 
and they refused to take the medicine. ^^ The herbs, whose 
rhedicinal properties they had known from time immemorial 
and which they would have gathered and brewed so eagerly, 
were denied them. No provision was made for sanitation and 
the camps were soon filthy and swarming with vermin. Fever 
and dysentery were rampant and infant mortality during the 
summer months was appalling. Add to these conditions the 
facts that whiskey was allowed to be brought into the camps 
and sold freely to the military, and that drunken soldiers had 
no regard for the sanctity of Cherokee womanhood when it 
was at their mercy, and the picture of the last extremity to 
which the captives could be reduced is complete. 

The stockades were so strongly guarded that escape from 
them was most difficult indeed, while leave of absence was denied 
to everyone on general principles. A few captives, however, 
succeeded in eluding the pickets and escaping, some to go in 
search of lost members of their families, and others to look after 
the old and sick who had been left behind. The Georgia Guard 
promptly captured part of them, gave them a hundred lashes 
on the bare back in punishment of their crime and then returned 
them to the stockade with dire threats of what would happen 
should the offense be repeated. 

When a sufficient number had been gathered into the stock- 
ades the work of removal began. Early in June several parties 

" Payne Mss. 9, pp. 23-25. 



118 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

aggregating about five hundred were brought down to the old 
agency on the Hiwassee River/^ to Ross's Landing^® and to 
Gunter's Landing."" Here they were forced into filthy and un- 
safe boats and sent down the river. In one instance so many 
were crowded into an unseaworthy steamer as to cause it to 
threaten to sink. The surplus was thereupon hastily and in- 
discriminately unloaded, separating children from parents, 
husbands from wives, who were not to be reunited until months 
afterwards when they met in the west.^^ These boats were sent 
down the Tennessee to Mussel Shoals where a transfer was 
made and the journey continued to Little Rock, and a second 
landing made. There in the heat of summer the emigrants were 
compelled to await the convenience of removal officers, some- 
times for weeks, before they could proceed to Indian Territory. 
Much sickness and many deaths resulted from the long and 
wearisome voyage in the sickly season of the year. 

From first to last the forcible removal of the Cherokees 
was strangely bungled. Contracts had been let to incompetent 
officials who neglected to provide adequate means of transpor- 
tation, particularly wagons for the land route, and a sufficient 
supply of provisions ; they also failed to establish depots of 
supplies along the way, a very important oversight when it is 
remembered that much of the country through which they 
were to pass was thinly populated and in the frontier stage 
at this time. 

To complicate matters still further a drought had set in 
during May and lasted until October, which rendered transpor- 
tation by land well nigh impossible, as it was estimated that 
for many marches in succession it Avould have been impossible 
for a company of a hundred to find even a scanty supply of 
water.^^ Up to June a scarcity of boats also had made it 
impossible to send off a considerable proportion of the captives 
by water. By this time the Hiwassee and the Tennessee had 

" Now Calhoun, Tenn. 

" Chattanooga, Tenn. 

^ Guntersville, Alabama. 

" Payne Mss. 9, pp. 23-25. 

^ Cong. Doc. 429, No. 288, p. 36. 



Compulsory Removal 119 

almost ceased to be navigable and were rapidly falling. It was 
also known that the Arkansas was very low. 

In this state of affairs, on July 23, the Cherokee Council 
proposed to General Scott that the whole business of emigrating 
be taken over by the nation. The condition of the people, they 
reasoned, was such that all dispute as to the time of emigration 
was set at rest and, since they were under the absolute con- 
trol of the commanding general, all inducements to prolong 
their stay in the Cherokee Nation East were taken away, and, 
however strong their attachment to the home of their fathers 
might be, their interests and wishes now were to depart as 
early as might be consistent with safety.^^ General Scott 
granted the request on condition that the Council be held re- 
sponsible for the good behavior of the Indians in the camp and 
on the march and that the first detachment should have started 
by the first of September, the last not later than October 20. 
The Council was to take entire control of all departments, 
provide all necessary means of travel and subsistence and em- 
ploy all assistance in transportation. The sum of sixty dollars 
a head was allowed for the expense of moving every man, 
woman and child. 

The situation of the captives improved immediately. The 
military was removed, the Georgia Guards forced to retire and 
the quack doctors dismissed. The people, permitted to scatter 
out freely and find as good locations for camps as a rather 
limited area permitted, found their condition much more en- 
durable than it had been under martial law. They naturally 
regarded as a godsend the change in arrangement for removal, 
for they felt that their interests would now be safeguarded by 
their chiefs and councilors who had stood by them through the 
severest temptations and refused to betray them for fear or 
favor. 

That the principal chief did not regard this confidence of 
his people as an asset to be traded on for his own profit, but as 
a reward well earned by conscientious devotion to what he 
considered their interests, and as something to be appreciated 
and cherished by him, is evident from a letter written to a friend 

=^ Ibid, p. 405 ; Ibid 338, No. 459, p. 1. 



120 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

in the spring of 1838: "If my people did not know that where 
their interest has been involved I should have thought it dis- 
honorable to regard my own; if they did not also know that 
I have never deceived them and that I never will desert their 
cause under any circumstancs of temptation or calumny to 
myself or difficulty or danger to them; if they did not know 
all this I should not so long have possessed the confidence with 
which they have honored me and which I prize more than 
all wealth or praise.""* The Federal Government, after two 
years in which it had refused to recognize Mr. Ross's official 
position, after it had added insult to insult and injury to injury, 
had, at last and after all, been glad to turn to liim for escape 
from the embarrassing and well nigh hopeless situation of the 
summer of 1838. 

The Creeks and Seminoles, Choctaws and Chickasaws forced 
by the treachery of their leaders and the iron will of President 
Jackson had already gone west and were now adjusting them- 
selves as best they could to their new environment in the wilder- 
ness inhabited by wild animals and wilder mcn.'^ The Cherokees 
with their more advanced civilization and more patriotic leaders 
had been able to resist longer, but had paid a heavier price; 
the disorganization of tribal government and customs, the 
wreck of homes and fortunes, the estrangement of friends and 
kinsmen, moral degradation, physical suffering and loss of life 
unparalleled at that time in the history of any tribe, con- 
stitute part of the penalty for Indian patriotism and loyalty 
to principle. All this at the hands of a government established 
less than three-quarters of a century before upon the principle 
of justice and the rights of man. This same government had 
shot down Cherokees like dogs, quartered them like malefactors 
and even put a price upon their heads. And the end was not 
yet. 

^^John Ross to Pennsylvania Legislature. Cherokee Mss. Records. 
^ Irving's Tour of the Prairies, pp. 8-12. 



CHAPTER XIV 

The Trail of Tears 

Left to themselves, the Cherokees set about systematizing 
their forces and bringing order out of chaos in a logical and 
businesslike manner. By resolution of their Council they made 
Chief Ross superintendent agent of emigration and entrusted 
the entire management of removal to a committee^ of their 
own people. This committee organized the people along the line 
of family ties, and of kinship where possible, into thirteen de- 
tachments comprised of as nearly equal numbers as practicable. 
Over each detachment were placed as officers two such men as 
were best qualified to manage that particular group of people. 
After a thorough investigation had been made of the different 
routes each division was to proceed over the one selected by 
its leaders." 

Late in August the Council and people assembling for a final 
meeting at Aquohe Camp, about two miles south of the Hiwassee 
River, passed a resolution declaring that, never having con- 
sented to the sale of their country either themselves or through 
their representatives, the original ownership still rested in the 
Cherokee Nation -wiiose title to the lands described by the 
boundaries of 1819 was still unimpaired and absolute; that the 
United States was responsible for all losses and damages in 
enforcing the pretended treat}^; as they had never relinquished 
their national sovereignty therefore the moral and political 
relations existing among the citizens towards each other and to- 
wards the body politic could not be changed by their forcible 
expulsion; finally they pronounced their laws and constitution 
in full force to remain so until the general welfare rendered a 
modification expedient.^ This action bound anew the people, -; 
distracted and confused by the harrowing experiences of the 
last few months, into a united body politic which went, not as 
individuals but as a nation, into exile. 

^ The committee was composed of John Ross, Richard Taylor, Samuel 
Gunter, Edward Gunter, James Brown, Elijah Hicks and Sitewakee. 
■ * Cong. Doc. 338, No. 459. 
' Payne Mss. 6, p. 6. 



122 John Ross anb the Cherokee Indians 

As September approached every exertion was made by both 
leaders and people to meet their obligations to the United States 
and keep their promise to General Wool that the first detach- 
ment should be under way September 1. Notwithstanding the 
continuance of the drought and the great amount of sickness 
among them it was determined that a company should be ready 
to start on the last day of August from the camp about twelve 
miles south of the agency in Tennessee.* It was the plan to 
get a part of the company in motion on the twenty-eighth, the 
remainder to follow the next day and come up while they were 
crossing the Tennessee river about twenty-five miles distant. 
At noon everything was in readiness for starting. Wagons 
and teams were stretched in a line along the road through the 
heavy forest. Groups of persons were gathered around the 
wagons or lingered about some sick friend or relative who was 
to be left behind. The temporary shacks covered with rough 
boards of bark which had been their shelter during the past 
weeks had been converted into bonfires, and were crackling and 
falling into glowing heaps of embers here and there on the camp 
ground. The day was bright and beautiful ; not a cloud 
dimmed the blue above. But a gloomy thoughtfulness shadowed 
the faces of the people. "In all the bustle of preparation there 
was a silence and stillness of voice which betrayed the sadness 
of heart.'"" When at last the signal was given to start, Going 
Snake, a white haired chief of four score years, mounted on 
his faithful pony, took the place at the head of the column 
followed by a cavalcade of younger men. Just as the proces- 
sion was on the point of being set in motion a clap of thunder 
smote the stillness and a dark spiral cloud was seen rising 
above the western horizon. Peal after peal rent the air and 
reverberated among the mountain peaks like the voice of some 
mighty offended deity, while overhead the sun still shone in an 
unclouded sky. Not a drop of rain fell. The cloud presently 
disappeared and the thunder died away in the distance, but 
the scene was not one to be easily forgotten by the superstitious 
Indians, always keenly alive to natural phenomena to which 

* Calhoun. 

^ W. Shorey Coody to John Howard Payne. Payne Mss. 6. 



The Trail of Tears 123 

they often attached supernatural significance. Was it the 
voice of divine indignation against the wrongs already suffered 
or the warning of some greater calamity awaiting them in the 
future ?' 

In consequence of sickness which still prevailed in the camps 
and the drought which rendered travel distressing beyond de- 
scription General Scott called a halt and ordered emigration 
suspended for several weeks.' It was not until some weeks 
later that the last detachment was ready to set out for the 
west. This party under the personal direction of the principal 
chief, himself, left Rattlesnake Springs, near Charleston, 
Tennessee, October 31. Crossing to the north side of the 
Hiwassee at a ferry above Gunstocken Creek they continued 
down along the river. The sick, the old people and children 
rode in the wagons* which carried the provisions, bedding, cook- 
ing utensils and such other household goods as they happened 
to have. The rest proceeded on foot or horseback. Now and 
then might be seen a carriage, a survival of more prosperous 
times. One of these carried the chief's family while he, mounted 
on horseback, rode along the line directing operations and en- 
couraging the people. The march was conducted with the order 
of an army; a detachment of officers heading the procession 
was followed by the wagons while the horsemen and those on 
foot brought up the rear, or when the road permitted, flanked 
the procession. Crossing the Tennessee river near the mouth 
of the Hiwassee^ the procession passed through Tennessee by 
way of McMinnville and Nashville and thence through Ken- 
tucky to Hopkinsville where a halt was made to bury White- 
path^" who had fallen a victim to illness and exposure. There 

*Mr. Coody was one of the officers engaged in removing this detach- 
ment. The story is taken almost verbatim from his account of the incident. 

'Cong. Doc. 411, No. 1098, pp. 48, 49. 

*A wagon drawn by six horses, and five saddle horses were provided ^^ 
for every twenty persons. The young people and the able bodied were "7 
expected to walk. Gen. Scott thought it would be good for their health.^ 
There were six hundred and forty-five wagons used for the transportation 
of the thirteen detachments. 

" At Tucker's Ferry. Mooney, Myths of the Cherokees, p. 132. 

^" He was in charge of a detachment. 



124 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

they buried him bj'^ the roadside, and built over his grave a 
wooden box in lieu of a more enduring and fitting monument 
to his long and loyal service to his people. At the head and 
foot they placed poles bearing black streamers as a signal to 
those coming on behind that they might not pass by without 
noting the last resting place of their venerable chief. Moving 
on, they crossed the Ohio, near the mouth of the Cumberland 
and thence passed through southern Illinois to Cape Girardeau. 

A severe winter had set in before the last detachment reached 
the Mississippi. The river was choked with floating ice, cross- 
ing was dangerous, and they were compelled to await the clear- 
ing of the current. The weather was bitterly cold and hundreds 
of sick and dying filled the wagons or were stretched upon 
the frozen ground with only a sheet or blanket stretched above 
to protect them from the cutting blast. The hardships through 
which they had passed during the last few months had reduced 
their vitality, while homesickness and mental depression so 
preyed upon their minds as to render them easy subjects to 
disease from which they could not rally. Hundreds never lived 
to cross the Father of Waters, and their bodies were left to 
moulder in an alien soil and among a people with scant regard 
for the sanctity of an Indian grave. 

When finally the last detachment was able to cross the river 
and continue the journey they found it necessary to take the 
northern route through central Missouri by way of Springfield 
and Southwest City, because those M^ho had preceded them 
going through the southern part of the state to Fort Smith 
had killed off the game upon which they depended largely for 
subsistence. It was March when they reached their destination. 
More than four thousand had perished on the way, among them 
the wife of Chief Ross. For many years the road the exiles 
travelled on this fateful journey was known to the Indians 
by a word in their language meaning the "Trail of Tears". 

Thus heartbroken, cowed and scorned, the last remnant of 
this once mighty and fearless tribe had passed from the land 
they loved, "broad, set between the hills", moving with bowed 
heads on toward the setting sun. The history of Cherokee 
wrongs had been so long before the public that it failed, for lack 



The Trail of Tears 125 

of novelty, to arouse fresh sympathy. With a few exceptions 

the world read the story unmoved. The Indian was after all only 

"A savage! Let him bleed and eat his heart and swiftly go; 

Our strength's our right. The tale is old! E'en so." 
"The pantherfooted, lithesome Indian brave 

We thought not worth our while to try to save. 

But welcomed hither hordes of king-crushed souls, 

The worn out serfs who cringed to lords for doles; 

We gave an eagle race the grave as bed; 

Our fields yet bear his sign, the arrow head."" 

And yet who knows .'^ Some great poet of humanity in the 
future may find in the tragic story of the expatriation of these 
children of the forest the theme for an epic or a drama of 
surpassing grandeur and pathos which may stir all mankind 
to pity for their sorrow and admiration for their virtues. If, 
peradventure, it comes not too late, like tears and flowers for 
the dead, who in life would have been made happier and better 
for the sympathetic word we had not sense to say, and the help- 
ing hand we had no time to extend, then a recreant nation may 
awake to the enormity of its injustice and inhumanity towards 
a valiant aboriginal people, and hasten to make what amends 
it may to their crushed and decadent descendants crowded back 
into remote corners of a country where once they were kings 
and emperors. 

"Calvin Dill Wilson, The Arrow Head, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 
May, 1813. 



CHAPTER XV 
A Triple, Tragedy 

The great body of the emigrants, arriving in the west in 
the winter of 1839, went into camp on a small river called the 
Illinois^ to await the opening up of spring. The purpose of 
the encampment was twofold. It furnished headquarters and a 
community of interests for the newcomers until they could look 
about for suitable locations for homes, so that disbanding and 
taking up the burden of adjustment and the business of making 
a living in an unfamiliar economic environment would be at- 
tended with fewer hardships than if they had been thrown at 
once each upon his own resources. It also kept them within 
reach of the governing body until their political status could be 
established upon a permanent basis in the new country. 

Barely had they pitched their camp, when they found them- 
selves confronted with a situation scarcely less distressing than 
the one from which they had just escaped. Coming to the west 
as a nation driven into exile, bearing with them their Lares 
and Penates, they found themselves not only strangers in a 
strange land amid surroundings and conditions new and un- 
familiar, but among a people with a political organization of 
their own, who were jealous of their rights and prerogatives, 
and who naturally looked askance upon so large a number, even 
of kinsmen, arriving in their midst with claims to all the rights 
of a sovereign nation. Here, too, they came face to face with 
the group of men at whose door they laid the blame of their 
expatriation and the suffering still fresh in the mind of a race 
which has always boasted of never forgetting a benefit con- 
ferred nor an injury inflicted. 

There had been two parties in the eastern nation. In the 
west there Avere three, the Emigrants or Nationalists, as the 
followers of Mr. Ross called themselves, the Treaty party and 
the Old Settlers. The Treaty men, who for reasons of self- 
preservation and polic}^ had preceded the Emigrants, took ad- 
vantage of the situation by promptly making friends with the 

^ In eastern Oklahoma. 



A Triple Tragedy 127 

Old Settlers, or Cherokees West, comprising approximately 
a third of the tribe, and set to work to build a strong party of 
opposition to Mr. Ross and his friends. The conditions in the 
western nation at this time were most favorable to the success 
of the scheme. 

Of the early westward migrations and the negotiations 
which led, in 1817, to the assignment of land in Arkansas to 
the Cherokees something has already been said. The tract 
upon which they settled belonged to the Osages whose claim 
the United States had not taken the trouble to satisfy. So, 
for more than a decade, the history of the western band is 
chiefly a story of Osage raids and Cherokee retaliations. De- 
lay in surveying the lines and taking the census and the with- 
holding of annuities until the census should be taken in the hope 
that the whole tribe might soon be induced to emigrate, all 
worked great hardship upon the Indians, hindering both civic 
and economic development.^ 

Meanwhile there was a growing demand on the part of 
Arkansas to rid her soil of Indian occupancy. When, there- 
fore, a delegation from the Western Council went up to Wash- 
ington, in the winter of 1828, to urge the settlement of their 
claims, such pressure was brought to bear upon them by the 
War Department as to practically force consent to the ex- 
change of their lands in Arkansas for a tract of seven millions 
of acres lying farther west, with a perpetual outlet as far west 
as the sovereignty of the United States might extend.^ The 
treaty was bitterly opposed by the tribe and the delegation on 
returning home barely escaped with their lives.* The Council 
pronounced them guilty of fraud and treason and declared the 
treaty null and void. Before they could do anything to prevent 
it, however, the treaty had been ratified by Congress and they 
found protest of no avail. Thus "barely ten years after they 
had cleared their fields in Arkansas they were forced to aban- 

^ Royce, Cherokee Nation of Indians, pp. 233, 242, 243 ; Washburn's 
Reminiscences of the Indians, pp. 113-122; McKenney and Hall, Indian 
Tribes of North America, II, pp. 125, 6, Vol. I, pp. 251-360. 

^ U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 311. 

* The laws of the Western Cherokees also made it a capital offense to 
negotiate any sale of land except by authority of the Council. Mooney, 
Myths of the Cherokees, p. 141; Starr, The Cherokees West, p. 110. 



128 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

don their cabins and plantations and move once more into the 
wilderness".^ 

Progress under such disheartening conditions was slow and 
difficult. And yet considerable advancement was made. 
Thomas Nuttall, who made a journey up the Arkansas river 
in 1819, described their farms as "well fenced and stocked with 
cattle", while the houses were decently furnished, a few of them 
evenly handsomely and conveniently.^ A year later a mission 
school was built at the Cherokee agency near the mouth of 
Illinois Creek, by the Reverend Cephas Washburn who did good 
service for religion and education until the treaty of Wash- 
ington made removal necessary. The missionaries followed the 
Cherokees in their exodus from Arkansas and rebuilt their 
mission of Dwight in the new country at the mouth of the 
Illinois river.^ Here also was located the new capital named 
in honor of the venerable chief Takattoka. 

The civil affairs of the Cherokees West had been continually 
confused and disturbed, not only by the indifferent policy of 
the Federal Government, but by the almost constant arrival of 
emigrants from the old nation. At the head of the tribal 
government from 1813 to 1818 was Takattoka, an aged chief 
of the conservative type. Upon the arrival of a considerable 
delegation under the treaty of 1817 a contest for leadership 
ensued between him and Tollunteeskee, the chief recognized not 
only by the emigrants but the United States. The older chief 
was forced to yield to the newcomers and take second place 
even after his rival died leaving the chieftainship to John Jolly, 
a descendant of Tollunteeskee.® 

In a reorganization of the government a few years later'' 
a plan was adopted similar to the one in use in the east at this 
time. They had no constitution in the truest sense of the 
word and but few written laws, although the government on the 

^Mooney, Myths of the Cherokees, p. 141. 

'Nuttall, Journals of Travels in the Arkansas Territory, p. 129. (Phil. 
1821). 

' Not to be confused with Illinois Creek in Arkansas. 
* Cong. Doc. 443, No. 235. 
» 1824. 



A Triple Tragedy 129 

whole was very well suited to the condition of the people and 
the times. It seems, however, that it was administered in a 
rather vague manner, and the laws were more indifferently en- 
forced than in the older community. 

In the fall of 1838 John Jolly, principal chief, died. As 
his first assistant chief, John Brown, had previously resigned, 
John Looney, second assistant chief, whose term of office ex- 
pired in October of the next year, was left the nominal head 
of the government."" The general conditions of the country 
naturally led to doubt and uncertainty on the part of the 
people, particularly since they were not sure on what footing 
they really stood with the United States in regard to the ad- 
justment of territorial rights with their eastern tribesmen, who 
were arriving in such multitudes as to outnumber them two 
to one. 

While the mass of the people showed no hostility towards 
the newcomers, but some anxiety that adjustment might take 
place without injustice to them, the leaders, backed up by the 
Treaty men and remembering how a large party of emigrants 
twenty years before had proved usurpers, determined to hold 
on to the reins of government at all hazards. Encouraged by 
the Ridge faction Jolui Brown, repenting of his resignation of a 
few months before, called an informal meeting of the Council 
to which eight members responded. These eight members ap- 
pointed Brown to fill the unexpired term of Chief Jolly and 
made John Looney first assistant, and John Rodgers second 
assistant chief. 

The newly appointed principal chief, responding to a re- 
quest from the National Council at the Illinois camp ground, 
called a meeting "for the purpose of bringing about a union 
and consolidation of the whole nation". ^^ Each party now be- 
gan laying its wires for controlling the convention. For sheer 
strength of ability and numbers the advantage was clearly to 
the emigrants who, in all probability, would manage the meet- 
ing so as to give themselves the upper hand in the proposed 
adjustment. But, as the Old Settlers and Treaty men were 

" Cong. Doc. S65, No. 129, pp. 21-55. 
" Ibid, p. 4. 



130 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

not lacking in resourcefulness, the outcome held enough uncer- 
tainty to arouse the keenest interest among the people long 
accustomed to taking an active part in settling their questions 
of national importance. 

The convention which met at Takattoka/" the Old Settler 
capital, was attended bj the chiefs and legislative councillors of 
both Eastern and Western Cherokees and about six thousand 
members of the tribe besides. After a formal reception given 
by the western to the eastern chiefs the councils convened 
separately, the Old Settlers meeting behind closed doors. Com- 
munication between the two bodies was conducted in writing, 
the people meantime pleasantly spending the time renewing 
old acquaintancs and tracing relationships as they enjoy doing 
down to the present time. The negotiations began by the Old 
Settlers requesting of the Nationalists a formal statement of 
their wishes in regard to the proposed union. They replied 
that they wished such a "joint arrangement as would thence- 
forth make the Cherokees a united people".^^ The Western 
Council coldly demanded a less ambiguous statement. The 
answer was a proposition that the adjustments of their rela- 
tions be left to a joint committee of equal members from each 
side and the principal and assistant chiefs of both nations. 

The Treaty men, who were on the ground and much in 
evidence with the Old Settlers, particularly with Chief Brown, 
were evidently using all their influence to circumvent the Na- 
tionalists. The next communication betrayed their influence 
too strongly to leave room for doubt. The Old Settler Council, 
now stepping out boldly, declared that they considered the two 
nations already virtually united. The Emigrants had accepted 
the welcome of the Western chiefs, had taken their hands in 
friendship, an act which they regarded as acceptance of them 
as rulers. The government and laws of the Cherokees from 
the east could not be admitted in the Avest; nor could two 
governments be tolerated in the same region; therefore the 
Eastern Emigrants must take the organization they found 

*2 0r Tahlontuskee. 

*' Payne Mss. 5, pp. 7-15. 



A Tkiple Tragedy 131 

already in operation when they arrived.^* The Emigrants re- 
turned a communication vehemently denying tliat the two people 
were already united and that the chiefs of the minority had 
any right, from prior residence in a place set apart for emi- 
grant Cherokees generally, to claim allegiance to themselves 
and their laws from a body of newcomers so greatly outnum- 
bering them. The}^ reminded them that in removing from the 
east it had been proclaimed and understood by Cherokees both 
sides of the Mississippi that they had not relinquished a single 
law but had emigrated in their national character with all the 
attributes which had belonged to them from time immemorial 
as a distinct communit3\ But for all that, notwithstanding 
they constituted so large a majority, they had not come to 
make any but just and equitable demands. ^^ 

On receiving this communication, the Old Settlers Council 
without further formalities adjourned and notified the waiting 
people that the meeting was broken up.^" The people, both 
Emigrants and Old Settlers, promptly resolved themselves 
into a national convention in which they declared that since 
their representatives had failed to accomplish a plan of union 
a National Assembly should meet July 1, at the Illinois camp 
ground to "recast the government upon a system applicable to 
their present conditions providing equally for the peace and 
happiness of the whole people".^' They adjourned after send- 
ing an express to notify General Arbuckle of the failure to 
effect a union and the determination to hold another conven- 
tion in July, and to request him that no disbursements of 
moneys due the Eastern Cherokees nor any other business of 
a public character affecting their rights be made or transacted 
by the government agent with any other Cherokee authority 
until a reunion of the people be effected.^^ 

Meanwhile, in the midst of the discussions, the men of the 
Treaty party had abruptly left the council ground just be- 

" Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 3. 
^lh\d, p. 4; Payne Mss. 5. 
^* June 14. Cong. Doc. 443, No. 235, p. 15. 
" Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 6. 

"Ibid, p. 54. The Old Settlers and Treaty men were then trying to 
get possession of all the public moneys. 



132 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

fore the Old Settlers Council had delivered its ultimatum, but 
not before their presence had aggravated the old grievances up 
to the danger point. Feeling against them ran high and threats 
were heard that it was not yet too late for them to pay the 
penalty of the law they had broken by signing the Schermer- 
horn treaty. Heretofore the opposition of Mr. Ross had been 
so decided that all attempts to carry it into execution had been 
held in abeyance. Now they were decided to proceed without 
his knowledge. Consequently about three hundred full-bloods, 
every one of whom had suffered some harrowing experience 
from forcible removal, banded themselves together, pledged to 
stand by each other to the last extremity. Of the three hun- 
dred, forty were chosen to perform the work of execution. 
They were completely disguised and acted with such prompt- 
ness and unity of purpose that in two days after the breaking 
up of the meeting their plan had been carried out to the letter." 
About daybreak of June 22 a band of armed men entered 
the house of John Ridge, dragged him into the yard and 
brutally murdered him before the eyes of his family. Major 
Ridge, attended by a servant, had started the day before to 
visit a friend at Van Buren, Arkansas. He was travelling 
down the Line Road"*' in the direction of Evansville. A runner, 
sent with all possible speed to inform him of his son's death, 
returned with the information that Major Ridge himself had 
been shot to death from ambush on the evening of the fateful 
twenty-second. The third victim was Elias Boudinot whose 
assassination was most savage and treacherous. While helping 
to build a house near his home at Park Hill he was called out 
by three men who said they wanted medicine. He started to 
accompany them to the house of Dr. Worcester, the missionary, 
about three hundred yards distant. When they had gone nearly 
half way two of the men seized and held him while the third 
stabbed him. The three of them then fell upon the wounded 
and helpless man with knives and tomahawks and cut him to 

" Niles' Register 56, p. 44. 

2° The road which followed the boiindarj' line between Arkansas and 
the Cherokee Nation. 



A Triple Tragedy 133 

pieces in a most barbarous fashion.-^ The deed unques- 
tionably was one of revolting brutality. Mr. Boudinot was a 
young man, as was John Ridge, in the prime of life; he was 
intelligent, well educated, an earnest Christian and devoted to 
the welfare of his people. His untimely taking off was the more 
deplorable from the fact that along with other important lit- 
erary efforts he was engaged in missionary work and in assist- 
ing Dr. Worcester in interpreting and translating the Bible 
and printing it in Cherokee. It is not discounting the impor- 
tance of the tragedy of the Ridges, therefore, to say that his 
loss at this time meant more to his people than the loss of any 
other man of the tribe could have meant, with the possible ex- 
ception of Chief Ross himself. The missionary, upon reaching 
the side of his murdered friend exclaimed, "they have cut off 
my right hand", and at the open grave fearlessly declared him 
to be as true a patriot at heart as ever lived, the signing of 
the treaty being the only act of his life which anyone could 
condemn."" 

The blow, long deferred, had fallen with a heavy, a brutal 
hand. While it was a shock to the whole nation and an act 
greatly to be deplored from all points of view it could not 
possibly have been a complete surprise to the friends of the 
victims. For, as has been suggested before, they were but ^ 
paying the penalty of a law which the Ridges, both father and 
son, had been instrumental in placing on the statute books ten 
years before and which Boudinot had been the first to put into ^ 
print. 

The fact that the murderers were of the National party and 
that Boudinot was killed within two miles of Ross's home lent 
color to the story that he had instigated the deed. News of 
the affair, reaching the remotest corner of the nation in an 
incredibly short time, aroused the greatest excitement. The 
Treaty men, regarding their murdered friends as martyrs to 
their cause, vowed that the price of their lives should be paid 

=^ Agent Stokes to the Secretary of War, June 24, 1839. Report of 
Indian Commissioner. 1839, p. 335. 

^ Couch, Pages from Cherokee History, p. 18. (Pamphlet, St. Louis, 
1884). 



134 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

bj the principal chief of the Emigrants around whom centered 
the storm of bitterness and hostility which raged for weeks and 
months in the new country, and who was made the object of 
threats and plots by the friends of the murdered men.^^ 

On Sunday, June 23, a rumor got abroad that a Ridge man 
was collecting a party to carry out this threat. At an hour's 
notice a band of a hundred armed men was on the way at full 
speed to guard Chief Ross, while another party went to the 
protection of Edward Gunter, a member of the National Coun- 
cil included in the threat. Party feeling was at fever heat and 
an act of indiscretion on the part of Mr. Ross would doubtless 
have led to a civil war, ending in the extinction of the leaders of 
both parties and the destruction of tribal government. But 
the calmness and self-possession which had served him so well 
in former emergencies did not desert him in this crisis. Enjoin- 
ing his friends and supporters, as they valued his favor and 
friendship, to refrain from any acts of aggression and violence, 
he sent an express to the military commander at Fort Gibson 
informing him of what had taken place and suggesting that, 
as it would probably be made a pretext by the Treaty men for 
further disturbances, an unbiased investigation of the matter 
should be undertaken. Replying to this communication Gen- 
eral Arbuckle sent a detachment of cavalry to conduct the 
chief safely to the protection of the fort where the Old Settler 
chiefs would meet him for the purpose of arranging plans to 
put a stop to further acts of outrage and violence. 

Meantime Treaty men and some Old Settler chiefs, among 
whom was John Brown, had taken refuge at Fort Gibson and 
sought protection from the commandant in whom they found 
a ready sympathy, as they did with the great majority of 
government officials whose obligations to President Jackson 
had prejudiced them against Mr. Ross. They were in favor 
of instant war and consulted some of the chiefs of the wild tribes, 
who happened to be present at the fort, to know what assistance 
they could furnish them in "putting down the strangers."^* 

^Report of Indian Commissioner, 1839, p. 335; Drake's Indians, pp. 
459, 460. 

^ Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 55. 



A Triple Tragedy 135 

Assured of the support of three or four thousand well armed 
allies from the neighboring nations they made their plans to 
rush suddenly upon the Illinois camp ground, disperse and 
pursue the men, not one in ten of whom was armed, and massa- 
cre every one of them, sparing only women and children. Before 
trying to carry the plan into execution, however, they revealed 
it to General Arbuckle, who advised them to postpone their 
vengeance and appeal to Washington for a settlement of the 
difficulty, and upon sober reflections they decided to act upon 
his suggestion. 

This was the state of affairs at the fort when the escort 
arrived to conduct Mr. Ross to safety. His friends had also 
been warned of a plan to make the chief a prisoner of the 
United States as soon as he reached Fort Gibson, hold him to 
account for the murders and remove him permanently from the 
chieftainship. Aware of these designs upon his liberty and 
his life, Mr. Ross courteously declined the services of the 
military guard, notifying General Arbuckle that he would 
remain at home and depend upon his own resources for protec- 
tion.'^ During the last ten days of June therefore when polit- 
ical adjustment should have been going on smoothly and the 
people given every opportunity to settle down to work, plant- 
ing crops and building houses, a civil upheaval was in progress 
such as the tribe had never experienced, and the country was 
torn from center to circumference by the bitterest factional 
strife it had ever known. 

The Federal Government promptly accused John Ross of 
being the cause of all the trouble. Not for a moment does it 
seem to have recognized its own responsibility for the state of 
affairs in the Cherokee Nation, where its secret agents by dark 
and devious methods had started a train of events which 
threatened to blot a nation out of existence and which actually 
caused its people to retrograde in civilization for three decades. 
Even in the fourth and fifth generations there are still traces 
of the old factional prejudice which three-quarters of a century 
have been unable to entirely obliterate. 

"-^ Ibid, p. 45 



CHAPTER XVI 

Political Readjustment 

A judicious and non-partisan attitude on the part of the 
commandant at Fort Gibson and the Cherokee agent at Bayou 
Menard would, without doubt, have gone a long way towards 
quieting the tumult aroused by the tragedy of June 22. 
Mr. Stokes threw the whole weight of his influence on the side 
of peace and conciliation, assuring all factions of his earnest 
desire to see the nation "flourish in peace, happiness and pros- 
perity" and of his willingness to do all he could to further this 
object "without partiality to anyone."^ It was a different 
story with General Arbuckle, who by profession, was a man of 
war and not of peace. His daily habits of life" tended possibly 
to increase his prowess as a warrior, undoubtedly to augment 
his ardor as a partisan, but totally unfitted him for the position 
of judge and arbiter in a situation requiring cool, sober and 
unbiased judgment. 

He was a Virginian by birth, an admirer of Andrew Jack- 
son, and a soldier of no mean ability who had been sent to the 
southwestern frontier fifteen years before. Fort Gibson, his 
headquarters, beautifully situated on some heights overlooking 
the Grand River valley in the Cherokee Nation, was for many 
years the most important center of military, commercial and 
social life in that region of the southwest. Here came the 
Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Cherokees when occasion 
made it necessary or desirable, and it was convenient also for 
the Avild tribes of the plains who doubtless found a certain 
fascination in the military garrison with its uniformed soldiers, 
its drills and martial music. The Western Cherokees, par- 
ticularly, found it a convenient place to buy supplies and to 
sell such articles of commerce as they had to offer, which 
were shipped by boat down the river to Little Rock or to New 
Orleans. 

1 Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 16. 

*He not only indulged in stronger drink than grape juice but kept 
a supply on tap with which to secure certain desired ends. Cong. Doc. 
No. 368, No. 222, p. 20. 



Political Readjustment 137 

Old Settler chiefs and Treaty men had established friendly 
relationships with the commandant of the garrison before the 
Emigrants arrived. Moreover, his opinions of John Ross and 
his followers had been highly colored by rumors from Wash- 
ington during the last few years and he was thus naturally 
prepared to take a prejudiced view of the newcomers as soon 
as they arrived. Not content to confine his activities to his 
legitimate field of action, he proceeded to use all his good offices 
at Washington and his authority in the Cherokee Nation to 
back up the Treaty men and the Old Settlers with whom they 
had made common cause. 

Alarmed at the turn affairs had taken in the early summer 
of 1839, the Treaty men sought safety under the protection of 
General Arbuckle and took up temporary quarters in the 
shadow of the fort, where, as has already been said, they were 
joined by the Old Settler chiefs and Council at the invitation 
of the military commander, who promptly sent an express to 
Washington to apprise the administration of what had taken 
place. The messenger returned in twenty-four days with 
orders to defend the Treaty men, support the Old Settlers, 
take care of such Cherokees as might manifest a hostile disposi- 
tion, and demand of John Ross the murderers of the Ridges 
and Boudinot.^ Acting on these instructions he informed the 
Western chiefs that they would be recognized as the only legiti- 
mate authority in the Cherokee Nation* and advised Chief 
Brown to hold on to his laws, by no means to give them up. As 
he would be sustained by the military, the people would even- 
tually be compelled to submit.^ 

Meanwhile, the Old Settler executive committee'^ had ad- 
dressed a communication to John Ross declaring that the 
manner in which the convention had been called to meet at the 
Illinois camp grounds, without any notice to them, was irregular, 
protesting against the legal force of any acts which it might 

^ Payne Mss. 8, p. 9; Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 9. 

* Cong. Doc. 443, No. 235, p. 16. 
= Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 86. 

* Composed of John Brown, John Looney, John Rodgers and John 
Smith. 



138 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

pass and proposing, at the suggestion of General Arbuckle, that 
he send a committee of his party to meet an equal number 
of their own at Fort Gibson on July 25, for the purpose of 
reaching an amicable settlement of the trouble/ Ross replied 
by inviting them to attend the convention just beginning its 
session at the Illinois camp ground. They declined the invita- 
tion saying that they had called a council of their own people 
and such others as chose to attend to meet at Takattoka on 
July 22 where the question of union would be considered by 
them.^ Then they proceeded to draw up a memorial demanding 
of the United States protection in the country and government 
guaranteed them by treaty,^ and asking for the moneys due 
the tribe. 

The convention met at the appointed time and place with 
a large number of Emigrants in attendance and a considerable 
_ sprinkling of the Old Settlers,^" numbering some of their most 
enlightened and conservative men, among whom was the ven- 
erable Sequoyah or George Guess. One of the first acts of the 
Convention was to appoint a committee of Old Settlers to com- 
municate with the chiefs at Fort Gibson urging their coopera- 
tion in adopting measures for preventing the further effusion 
of blood, effect a union "on just and reasonable conditions" 
and lay the foundation of a code of laws for the protection of 
the rights and privileges of all. "Come up without delay," 
wrote this committee,^^ "that we may talk matters over like 
friends and brothers. These people are here in great multi- 
tudes and they are perfectly friendly towards us. They have 
said over and over again that they would be glad to see you, 
and we have all confidence that they will receive you with 
friendship. There is no drinking here to disturb the peace. "^" 
The appeal met with no response from the Old Settlers. 

The convention next turned its attention to the tumultuous 
condition of the country, passing such laws as were thought 

' Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 59. 

« Ibid, p. 67. 

» Ibid, p. 66. 

^^ "Upwards of two thousand" in all. 

" July 2. 

'^ Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 66. 



Political Readjustment 139 

best for restoring confidence and quiet. A resolution of July 7 
declared that the Ridges and Boudinot had, by their conduct, 
laid themselves liable to the penalty of the ancient law against 
selling territory belonging to the tribe, and extending to the 
survivors a full amnesty for past offenses but upon stringent 
and humiliating conditions. Three days later it passed a decree 
securing the murderers from any prosecution or punishment and 
restoring them fully to the confidence of the community.^"* The 
committee on act of union, with Sequoyah as a member, 
made its report on July 12. It was adopted almost unani- 
mously, and bears the signatures of John Ross, George Lowrey 
and thirteen others representing the Eastern Cherokees, and 
George Guess with fifteen Old Settlers for the Western Nation.^* 
The proportion of Old Settlers in attendance was small 
at first, but as the days went by the orderliness of the proceed- 
ings reassured them, and they turned out in increasing numbers. 
Among those who came to look on and observe the workings of 
the convention was John Looney, who went away well pleased 
and reported to General Arbuckle his good impression of the 
proceedings. There was a growing desire on the part of the 
majority of the people of all factions for a compromise and 
some hope was entertained that it might be brought about when 
the Old Settler chiefs met at the mouth of the Illinois River 
the last of July. 

When the time arrived, however, the Treaty men, furious 
over the humiliating conditions of the amnesty decree, were 
prepared to yield not an inch. The committee, on arrival at 
the council ground, met with such open hostility, that fearing 
their lives were in danger, they retired without discharging the 
business for which they had been sent. 

Convinced finally that no reconciliation could be effected 
with Brown and Rodgers, John Looney, first assistant chief, 
and Aaron Price, a very prominent Old Settler, withdrew from 
the Council, called a convention of their western people and 
deposed the two chiefs. Brown and Rodgers, on the ground that 

"Niles' Register 56; Report of Indian Commissioner, 1839, p. 387. 
^* John Looney's name, which appears on the document, was not attached 
until August 23. 



140 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

they no longer represented the will of the people, but had acted 
in direct opposition to their wishes in appealing to the United 
States for interference in their internal affairs. They then 
elected John Looney principal chief, giving him authority to 
represent the Western Nation in signing the articles of union. 
This he did on August 23/' 

After providing for a constitutional convention to be held 
early in September, the meeting at the Illinois camp ground 
adjourned, having accomplished the purpose for which it was 
called. This second convention met at Tahlequah and from 
September 6 to 10 drew up a bill of rights and a constitution 
modeled closely after the one the Emigrants had brought with 
them from the east. Having been submitted to the people for 
ratification it was proclaimed the law of the land, and, accord- 
ing to its provisions, officers for the new government were 
elected. These officers were chosen from among both Emigrants 
and Old Settlers. John Ross was elected principal, and Joseph 
Vann,^*' an Old Settler, second chief. In the executive council 
and the two legislative branches the Western Cherokees were 
slightly in the majority, both the speaker of the CounciP^ and 
president of the Committee^^ being Old Settlers. ^^ When Octo- 
ber arrived they were prepared to hold their National Council. 

The Brown and Rodgers faction of the Old Settlers, re- 
fusing to recognize their summary deposition from office, called 
another council in October and elected John Rodgers as prin- 
cipal chief and John Smith, a signer of the Schermerhorn 
treaty, first assistant chief; Dutch, a full-blood who had dis- 
tinguished himself for many deeds of daring among the western 
tribe, with whom his name was a word of terror, was made 
second assistant chief. '" Entrenched in the belief that the 
United States would protect them in their rights and would 
acknowledge theirs as the only legitimate government among 

^= Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 68. 

" Vann had, at one time, been a chief of the Old Settlers. 

" William Shorey Coody. 

" Young Wolf. Cong. Doc. 366, No. 188, p. 41. 

^» Cong. Doc. 368, No. 222, p. 2. 

""Cong. Doc. 359, No. 347, p. 19. John Brown had gone to Mexico to 
see about securing a new country for himself and his friends. 



Political Readjustment 141 

the Cherokees they held on stubbornly to their contention for 
leadership, denounced the proceedings of ]\Ir. Ross and his 
party, which they declared null and void, protested against the 
transaction of business with their delegation on behalf of the 
Cherokee Nation, and demanded that the tribal funds be re- 
fused them.'^ 

General Arbuckle, while disavowing all intention of med- 
dling with the internal affairs of the Cherokees, but imperfectly 
concealed his eagerness to do so.^" The readiness with which 
he gave ear to the wildest rumors started by partisans and his 
manner of making reports to the Department of War so as not 
only to indicate the measures to be supported but also the men 
to be upheld, betrayed him. Secretary Poinsett, who proved 
himself hardly less partisan, gave full credit to these reports, 
qualified as they were with "perhaps," and "I believe that I am 
justified in making the assertion," or "as I judge,""^ and dis- 
tinctly informed the newly organized government that only 
such information was acceptable as was being received from 
the military, and not from the agency where Governor Stokes 
showed a much more judicial attitude. 

An occurrence at the Fort soon after the act of union is 
illustrative of his attitude at this time. Charles Coody and 
Looney Price, two Old Settlers who had signed the Act of 
Union, called upon him and found him much excited about the 
conciliatory course of so many of the Western Cherokees. He 
expressed great surprise that Charles Coody had taken such an 
active part. Coody answered that if every man would make 
the proper effort at this crisis a reconciliation would soon be 
effected and the whole nation would soon be happy and at peace. 
Whereupon the General bitterly exclaimed, "You too — you 
shouldered a rifle and went with all the rest to guard John Ross ; 
but for that, John Ross w^ould have been killed !"■* 

^ The Government was holding up payments of all moneys due the 
Cherokees until a settlement of their difficulties could be reached. Con<j. 
Doc. 359, No. 347, p. 16. 

^Report of Indmn Commissioner, 1810, p. 46; Royce, Cherokee Nation 
of Indians, pp. 294, 395. 

=' Couff. Doc. 359, No. 347. 

" Cong. Doc. 368, No. 223, p. 3. 



142 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

General Arbuckle grossly misrepresented the articles of 
union in order to convince the War Department that sharp 
practices had been used in ratifying them and that they con- 
tained sentiments which made impossible any peaceable settle- 
ment of the factional trouble. 

In his eagerness to put Mr. Ross in the worst possible light 
before the administration he frequently showed, in his reports, 
not only vindictiveness but positive lack of candor, while his 
effort to prejudice the Western Cherokees against Ross is ill 
concealed. Moreover, the obligation of the Federal Government 
to the Treaty men who had been its tools in making the Scher- 
merhorn treaty, was such as to make it difficult for its officers 
to take a judicial and tactful attitude towards the Avhole situ- 
ation. To General Arbuckle it was not only difficult but im- 
possible. In a high-handed and dictatorial manner he demanded 
that the murderers of the Ridges and Boudinot be turned over 
to him and assurance given by Mr. Ross that he would be 
responsible for the conduct of his followers in the future, 
threatening to send the militia through the country unless this 
demand Avere complied with. Mr. Ross protested politely, yet 
vigorously, against such a course, saying that he refused to be 
held responsible in any way for the murders which he so much 
deplored. As the murderers were unknown to him he could not 
apprehend them, nor would he send them to Fort Gibson if he 
could. It was in his opinion a local affair and one which the 
Cherokees themselves were competent to control and adjust in 
the manner most conducive to the peace and welfare of the 
nation without interference from the United States.'^ 

This angered General Arbuckle so much that he accused 
Ross himself of being the murderer or the instigator of the deed, 
since he was admittedly the protector of the assassins, and he 
was on the point of arresting and placing the chief in confine- 
ment when he found that Mr. Ross was ready to start to 
Washington with his delegation.^® As his arrest and detention 

=^ Evans Jones to John Howard Payne. Payne Mss. 5; Cong. Doc. 365 
No. 129, p. 109; Cong. Doc. 366, No. 188, p. 16. 
« Ibid, p. 25. 



Political Readjustment 143 

in the east would be likely to prove more embarrassing to the 
chief and less so to the commandant, Mr, Ross was allowed to 
depart unmolested, but not before General Arbuckle had dis- 
patched an express to the Capital artfully suggesting the 
course which should be pursued toward him. 

Thus when the delegation from the newly organized gov- 
ernment presented itself and requested an interview with Sec- 
retary Poinsett he bluntly refused to receive them with John 
Ross, whom he violently denounced as the instigator of the 
murders of the Ridges. The delegation refused an interview 
without the chief and demanded evidence for the accusation 
against him; to which Mr. Poinsett replied that evidence 
would be produced in the progress of the investigation which 
had been instituted."^ The evidence was never produced, how- 
ever, and the Secretary, when cornered, had to admit that no 
investigation had been instituted as he considered none neces- 
sary as long as Ross did not give up the murderers. 

The winter and early spring were spent in fruitless efforts 
to secure an adjustment at Washington, and equally fruitless 
efforts in the Cherokee Nation to bring the two factions 
together. 

During all this time the tribal funds were being held up, 
and the people, unable to secure supplies, were suffering for 
want of the necessaries of life as well as from political dissen- 
sions."^ A settlement of the controversy in some manner became 
imperative, but how it was to be accomplished was not at all 
clear. When in November the Secretary of War announced 
to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that the rule of the 
majority was a principle as applicable to the affairs of the 
Cherokees as any other community, and that the minority 
must eventually yield to the great mass, it seemed that light 
might be dawning on the situation. ^^ 

Acting on this ruling and by the advice and assistance of 
Agent Stokes, a meeting was held at Tahlequah, January 15, 
for the purpose of deciding by vote which government they 

=" Cong. Doc. 359, No. 347, p. 21. 
^'Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 38. 
» Ibid, p. 5. 



144 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

would choose for their nation, "in order that peace and friend- 
ship may be restored throughout the country and the Govern- 
ment of the United States satisfied as to the will and choice of 
the Cherokees in relation to this matter. '"° A special invita- 
tion was sent the Old Settler chiefs to join them; but when the 
assembly met at the appointed time they failed to appear. The 
first act of the assembly was to repeal the decree of outlawry 
against the Treat}^ men which had given so much oifense at 
Washington and cause for complaint in the Cherokee Nation. 
The people present expressed themselves unanimously^^ in favor 
of the new govermnent and signed the articles of union, a cer- 
tified copy of which bears one hundred and fifteen names of 
Western Cherokees.''" Captain Page, who attended the meeting 
as General Arbuckle's representative, reported that upon 
counting the total number of votes cast he found them to be 
between seventeen and eighteen hundred.^'^ 

There was clearly a majority in favor of union and the 
constitution. Agent Stokes recognized it, and General Arm- 
strong^* wrote the Secretary of War that, in view of the late 
ruling of the War Department, since the convention had decided 
in favor of the union and the decree of outlawry had been re- 
pealed placing all upon an equal footing, he had determined to 
recognize the late government in such transactions as he and 
his agents might have with them, adding that he considered the 
peace of the country the great object to be obtained: it was a 
matter of no importance to the Government who ruled, provided 
the obligations of the United States be recognized. He recom- 
mended that, since now there was a fair prospect of harmony 
being restored, the money due them be paid.^^ 

=" Cong. Doc. 365, No. 129, p. 17. The Treaty party and Old Settlers 
refused to attend because they regarded the invitation to meet as having 
no other object than revealing the weakness of their numbers. Ibid, p. 34. 

Gen. Arbuckle refused to attend because the Old Settlers and Treaty 
men would not go. Ibid, p. 42. 

^^ With tlie exception of one man. 

^- The Cherokees were in advance of their times on the question of equal 
suffrage. 

^Cong. Doc. 359, No. 347, p. 45. 

^^ Acting Superintendent of the western territory. 

*'Cong. Doc. 359, No. 347, pp. 51-2. 



Political Readjustment 145 

The victory of the unionists was not so acceptable to 
General Arbuckle, who acknowledged^*^ with reluctance that it 
now became his duty in accordance with the ruling of the 
Executive and the decision of the convention to notify the Old 
Settlers that their government was at an end. He had no 
doubt, he wrote, that the decision would be keenly felt by the 
Old Settlers, who in their kindness had invited the late Emi- 
grants to share their country with them; in less than a year 
after their arrival the newcomers had wrested the authority out 
of the hands of their benefactors. Unless something were done 
to satisfy the Old Settlers he feared outrages and bloodshed 
might be expected. They would not peaceably surrender their 
rights and had expressed the intention of claiming from the 
United States undisputed possession of the seven millions of 
acres of land to which they were entitled. He suggested that if 
he were permitted to exercise his own judgment he would at 
once dissolve the two governments and form a third.^^ The 
letter was followed up by a memorial from the western chiefs 
protesting against the decision of the late convention, and 
together they had the desired result. 

In spite of a letter from Agent Stokes stating that there 
was nothing in the new constitution to encourage murder and, 
as a result of conversations with five or six Old Settlers, he 
judged that the murders were not sanctioned by the chiefs 
and principal men,^^ the Secretary of War ordered General 
Arbuckle to bring about a new constitution securing the rights 
of the Indians, the abolition of such savage and cruel edicts as 
that under which the Ridges and Boudinot were slain, con- 
formity to the United States constitution and the exclusion 
from office of John Ross and William Shorey Coody.^® 

Ross and Coody immediately protested vigorously on the 
ground that the United States had no control over their in- 
ternal affairs, but the War Department was obdurate. General 
Arbuckle had at last succeeded in getting the desired authority 

'^ Jan. 23, 1840. Ibid, p. 50. 

«' Conff. Doc. 359, No. 317, p. 51. 

'*Ibid, p. 51. 

'» Cotig. Doc. 366, No. 188, pp. 54-6. 



146 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

into his hands and his love of power was keenly gratified. 
Acting on instructions, he declared both governments dissolved 
and called a conference to be held at his headquarters, July 25, 
to which each party was requested to send deputations of 
twenty-five or thirty men. Both parties opposed this plan of 
settling the difficulty, but the General was in the saddle and 
prepared to ride roughshod over all opposition. 

Then the unexpected happened, taking him completely off 
his guard and forcing him to either go down in ignominious 
defeat, or to make terms with the enemy. A few days before the 
time for the conference arrived, a call council of the Nation- 
alist government met and quietly appointed its full quota of 
delegates. The delegation composed of some of the ablest men 
from the Emigrants and Old Settlers went over to Fort Gibson 
thoroughly organized, with a well defined purpose in mind and 
a copy of their Acts of Union and Constitution in hand. They 
were also prepared to prove that they represented a majority 
of the Cherokee people, both Emigrants and Old Settlers. 

The Old Settler Council had made no such preparation to 
defend its interests. The principal and assistant chiefs with 
a number of their leading men casually appeared on the ground 
but no authorized deputation had been named to represent 
them. At the last moment Chief Rodgers was compelled by the 
exigencies of the situation to appoint some of his friends to 
act for his party. From the start, therefore, the advantage 
was clearly with the Nationalists who had not only a well 
defined policy to guide them but the support of the people 
to back them. General Arbvickle, appreciating the significance 
of the situation felt compelled to advise the Old Settlers to give 
in. They at first refused to do so, but after considerable delay, 
during which the Nationalists made it plain that they could 
act upon no other basis than the complete acceptance of their 
Acts of Union and Constitution, the Old Settlers, on assurance 
from their friend, the General, that they could accept them 
without acknowledging their legal force until they had been 
concurred in by their people as a nation, came to terms and 
signed an agreement. Acceptance of the Acts of Union and 
the Constitution of the Nationalists was a practical recognition 
of the government organized under them. 



Political Readjustment 147 

The statement of the conditions is very ambiguous and they 
were doubtless differently understood at the time, but the 
whole tribe, worn out with the year of contention and dis- 
organization, was glad to agree to any compromise that prom- 
ised a degree of peace and harmony. Even Chief Rodgers of 
the Old Settlers, while personally opposed to the union, gave a 
toast, "What has been done this day, may it never be undone.'"*' 
The agreement was signed by eleven members of the Eastern 
Nation and twelve from the Western. Although there was 
never any subsequent action on the part of the Western Chero- 
kees concerning the compact the Federal Government consid- 
ered it binding, and for all practical purposes recognized the 
government from which neither John Ross nor William Shorey 
Coody had been excluded. 

Mr. Ross had thus emerged triumphant from the tumult 
and heat of the conflict, as cool and level headed, apparently, 
as if it were a game of Indian ball he had been playing. Never 
for a moment had he wavered in his determination to prevent 
the overthrow of his own party and make it the dominant 
political force in the new country. The motive which prompted 
him was doubtless, to some extent, self-aggrandizement, but 
that it was dominated by true patriotism his followers never 
doubted for an instant. Whatever sharp political practices 
the chief was tempted to make use of, either now or in later 
years, he had learned in the hard school of experience, and from 
tutors provided by no less an institution than the United 
States Government. 

« Cong. Doc. 457, No. 140, p. 67. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Political Readjustment, Concluded 

The National Council selected for the location of its capital 
the site of an old Ute Indian village, abandoned more than half 
a century before, situated in a narrow valley overlooked by 
oak-clad ridges. The place commended itself to them partly 
on account of its sheltered position and salubrious climate, and 
partly, no doubt, from the fact that the lay of the land and the 
character of the country round about bear some slight resem- 
blance to their ancient nation. On the north a rocky promi- 
nence smooths out into an open prairie which after a few miles 
merges in a heavy forest. To the southward the broken ridges, 
interspersed with forests and fertile valleys, at length give 
place to rugged hills beyond which rise more rugged hills until 
they lose themselves in the dimness of the purple distance. A 
little creek, bearing the accumulated waters of many hillside 
streams, flows over a stony bed down through the town and, 
together with a number of nearby springs, furnishes an abun- 
dant supply of water for man and beast. In many ways it was 
an ideal spot for the purpose for which it was chosen. They 
named it, not New Echota, but Tahlequah, for the ancient vil- 
lage of Talikwa or Tellico which held less tragic associations 
for the tribe than their former capital. 

Here they laid out the council ground in the form of a 
square, of the dimensions of a city block and enclosed it with 
a rude fence, within which a temporary shed sheltered the 
first meeting of the Council. A log cabin served as executive 
office. During the next year the shed was replaced by log 
houses built on two corners of the capitol square, one for the 
accommodation of the legislature, the other for the judiciary. 
Several years later the log houses, in turn, gave place to a tAvo- 
story brick council house built in the center of the square. 

The first Council met between September nineteenth and 
October twelfth and in quick succession passed laws for punish- 
ing criminal and other offenses, regulating settlement on the 
public domain, the adjustment of certain cases by arbitration, 



Political Readjustment 149 

prohibiting the vending of ardent spirits, granting permission 
to locate new mission stations, establisliing a school system and 
a judiciary. In addition to these there was various other legis- 
lation necessary for putting the machinery of government into 
motion.^ Just as in the old nation, the country was divided 
into eight districts," for the purpose of apportioning represen- 
tation in the Council and the Committee, and for greater ease 
in administering the school system and the local affairs of the 
different sections. 

By the compromise arranged at Fort Gibson in the summer 
of 1840 it was hoped and confidently believed that peace and 
harmony had been permanently restored. According to the 
agreement one-third of the officers elected under the new con- 
stitution promptly resigned, and Chief Rodgers, representing 
the Old Settler government, appointed Western Cherokees to 
fill the unexpired term with the distinct understanding that 
thereafter each one, regardless of party affiliation, was to take 
his own chance at election. When Council convened in October, 
1840, therefore, the new officers appeared and took their places 
after having pledged themselves to support the constitution. 

The delegation from the National party sent to Wash- 
ington the previous winter returned home in October, after 
having been absent for almost a year. The news they brought 
as revealed in the principal chief's message^ was far from en- 
couraging to a community embarrassed to the point of individ- 
ual starvation and national bankruptcy. The unsettled condi- 
tion of the country and the conflicting claims of rival parties 
had given the administration some excuse for evasion and delay, 
not only in turning over the annuities, but in carrying out the 
terms of the treaty. The real reason for the latter, however, is 
not to be sought in the wilds of the southwest but in the treaty 
itself whose Delphic vagueness began to grow embarrassing 
enough to the Senate and the Executive when time came to "set- 
tle up" the financial end of the bargain. Those who had agreed 

^Cong. Doc. 411, No. 1098. 

^ A ninth was added later and given the name Coowee Scoowee, John 
Ross's Indian name. 

'Cong. Doc. 411, No. 1098, p. 45. 



150 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

with Mr. Lumpkin that it was the best treaty ever entered into 
with an Indian tribe were now forced to take refuge in meaning- 
less generahties when their opinion was sought as to the real 
meaning of the treaty. Even the Senate which had approved the 
document could shed no light upon it, nor was the President or 
the Secretary of War able to reconcile its contradicting state- 
ments as to whether the expense of removal should be sub- 
tracted from the five million to be paid for the old nation or 
whether it should be borne by the United States. By article 
eight the Federal Government made itself plainly liable for the 
expense of removal and by article fifteen this same item, to- 
gether with the charge for subsistence, is enumerated with other 
expenses to be taken out of the amount paid the Cherokees for 
their eastern lands. Supplemented articles to the treaty, which 
had been found necessary to give character to the original 
document before it could even pass the Senate, cleared up some 
points, but on others rendered the confusion worse confounding. 
To add to the complication the Old Settlers now claimed 
that if they were to be forced to share their country with the 
newcomers they should share with them in the per capita pay- 
ment which was to be made of all the moneys remaining from 
the sale of the eastern lands after expenses were paid. Also, 
the Treaty men claimed that, since they had been allowed only 
twenty dollars per capita for removal while the Emigrants had 
been promised three times as much, they should be reimbursed 
for the difference. These conflicting claims added to the com- 
plication and the Van Buren administration, now nearing its 
end, took no definite step towards reducing it to order and 
harmony. The delegations at Washington in the winter of 
1840-1841 appealed in vain for a final interpretation of the 
treaty and a complete execution of all its terms. The Indians 
and their troubles were too remote, cut no figure in the present 
political situation and the future was not yet to be reckoned 
M'ith. With the Cherokees safe beyond the Mississippi, the 
President and Congress had been glad to free their minds of 
them. It seemed impossible to attract any intelligent attention 
at this time and affairs drifted on into the next administration, 
while the Cherokee government was bankrupt and many of the 
people were in want of the necessaries of life. 



Political Readjustment 151 

With the accession of the Whigs, who had loudly denounced 
Jackson's force policy, high hopes were entertained of a change 
of policy towards the Cherokees. But weeks passed into months 
before they succeeded in gaining the ear of the executive. 
Finally in September President Tyler addressed to the delega- 
tion a letter in which he deplored the injustice they had suf- 
fered at the hands of the Federal Government and promised 
that, as far as lay in his power to prevent it, no Cherokee should 
ever again petition in vain for justice. He had carefully read 
the various treaties, he said, wherein he found promises of 
friendship on one side and of protection and guardian care on 
the other. He had read Washington's address to the delegation 
of the nation as it was inscribed in the silver bound book, 
presented to them at Philadelphia, wherein he found a record 
of the mutual obligations existing between his government and 
that of the Cherokee Nation, He also read the talk made by 
Jefferson inscribed upon a parchment and surrounded by an 
endless chain of gold. "Let us keep that chain bright and un- 
broken," he enjoined them; "In its preservation consists our 
mutual happiness." A new treaty was then promised, giving 
them indemnity for all their wrongs, establishing upon a per- 
manent basis the political relations between them and the 
United States, and guaranteeing their lands in fee simple. In 
closing, President Tyler prophesied that a new sun would soon 
dawn upon the Cherokee people in whose brightness their per- 
manent happiness and true glory might be read by the whole 
world. "And I shall rejoice to have been the President under 
whose auspices these great and happy results shall have been 
produced."* 

Mr. Ross and his delegation joyfully carried this letter 
home to read to their Council in October, 1841, where they 
found some excitement existing over a rumor that a "head 
right" payment of the money would be made under the New 
Echota Treaty. Many were in favor of accepting what the 
government was willing to pay them without further delay that 
their distressed condition might be relieved.^ Chief Ross coun- 

*Cong. Doc. 411, No. 1098, pp. 71, 72. 
» Ibid. 



152 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

seled delay in the belief that under a new treaty they would 
receive millions, whereas under the New Echota Treaty they 
would receive only a few thousand, which, paid per capita, 
would amount to a comparatively small sum.*^ After a fierce 
debate the chief's policy prevailed and a new treaty was confi- 
dently looked forward to as a panacea for all their political ills. 

With a view to carrying out this promise, the President in- 
structed the Cherokee agent through the Commissioner of In- 
dian Affairs to procure all the information possible upon the 
subject of the injustice done the members of the tribe to the 
end that amends might be made them as far as possible. The 
Secretary of War, acting upon this report, went so far as to 
prepare the draft of a new treaty, but it was so far from 
satisfactory to all parties that the effort at adjustment came 
to naught. 

Meantime the possibilities suggested by Mr. Tyler's letter 
had been working sad havoc among the newly reconciled parties 
at home. Should investigation prove that large sums of money 
to be paid per capita, were rightfully due the tribe, would mem- 
bers of all parties share and share alike or would the Emigrants 
claim, and by their superior numbers and political strength 
secure the lion's share.? These were questions which began to 
agitate the minds of the opposing factions. Lawyers, think- 
ing they saw rich fees in contesting claims, were not slow to 
lend a hand at setting in motion a train of influences which 
soon produced a repetition of all the old party wrangling and 
bitterness. Old Settlers and Treaty men put forward separate 
claims conflicting with those of the Cherokee national govern- 
ment. The Western Cherokees, with whom the Ridge men 
usually made common cause, attempted to establish their gov- 
ernment at the mouth of the Illinois River. The Cherokee na- 
tional authorities tried to suppress the movement on the ground 
of treason, and the opposition, angry and resentful, appealed 
to Washington to have a certain section of the nation set apart 
for them, complaining that they could not live in peace and 
harmony with the Ross government. The administration at 
loss to know what to do took refuge, as usual, in inaction. 

" Ibid. 



Political Readjustment 153 

Meanwhile Chief Ross and the Cherokee Council were not 
idle. After having failed in the attempt to restore harmony 
and unity at home they dispatched a delegation to Washington 
in the winter of 18-i3-l'i to head ofi' the secession movement by 
arranging a new treaty. Armed once more with President 
Tyler's letter they appeared at the National Capitol and pre- 
sented to the Secretary of War a statement of the salient points 
on which they desired to negotiate a new agreement. Repre- 
sentatives of the other two factions were also present^ and their 
hostility to the Ross party caused the President to decide that 
the cause of turbulence in the tribe must be obtained and re- 
sponsibility for it fixed before a new treaty could be considered. 
Charges had been brought against the dominant party claim- 
ing that grievous oppressions were practiced by them, insonmch 
that their opponents were not allowed to enjoy life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness, and that the act of union was 
never authorized or sanctioned by the legal representatives of 
the people. The Nationalists contended that the Western 
Cherokees and the Treaty party enjoyed the same degree of 
security and the same fullness of rights enjoyed by any other 
part of the nation, and counter charged that the alleged dis- 
satisfaction was confined to a few restless spirits whose motto 
was "rule or ruin".^^ 

Unable to reconcile these contradictions. President Tyler 
appointed a commission to inquire into the disturbances and 
the grievances of the weaker parties. This commission, com- 
posed of General R. Jones, Lieutenant Colonel R. B. Mason 
and Mr. P. M. Butler,"* the Cherokee agent, arriving at Fort 
Gibson in the early winter, issued a proclamation stating their 
business with the Cherokees and inviting them to come in and 
register any complaints which they might have against the 
party in power. Conferences held at different places were well 
attended, over nine hundred being present at one meeting, and 
a thorough investigation was made lasting over several weeks. 

''Conff. Doc. 476, No. 331, p. 18; Royce, Cherokee Nation of Indiana, 
pp. 300, 301, 

8 Ibid, p. 301. 

' Cong. Doc. 476, No. 331, p. 20. 



154 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

Based on this investigation, the commission made its report 
which stated that, after an impartial examination of the facts 
in the case, the committee was thoroughly convinced that the 
authority for the proceedings on either side at Fort Gibson 
in July, 1840, was adequate, since the representatives of the 
Western Cherokees who had attended and taken part in the de- 
liberations were regarded by both Eastern and Western Chero- 
kees as authorized agents ; that the stipulations in regard to 
office were at once carried out, and many of those now denying 
the validity of the compact had taken office under it, and conse- 
quently had taken the required oath ; and while the proceedings 
were never referred back to the people there was probably no 
intention that they ever should have been — at any rate, the 
reason that they were not, seemed to have been not the fault 
of the Ross party. Chief Rodgers and others had received 
money from the new government for claims under the old. The 
complaining party had acquiesced in the new government and, in 
the succeeding election, party lines seem to have been oblit- 
erated and the Western Cherokees had received the majority 
of the offices. As to the moot question of per capita payments, 
the committee held the opinion that all parties stood on an 
equal footing. It further reported that the complaint of op- 
pression against the Ross party since the act of union, was 
unfounded and that no life had been endangered by them ex- 
cept in the administration of wholesome laws; but there was 
great danger to life from frequent and stealthy incursions of 
a desperate gang of bandit half-breeds, notorious in the nation 
as wanton murderers, house burners and horse thieves, but 
whose fraternity was not of the dominant party; among the 
mass of the people there was no discontent, the bitterness and 
hostility to the dominant party being confined to only a few. 
The commission concluded its report by recommending a new 
treaty on the basis of President Tyler's letter.^" 

The investigation had been comprehensive, thorough; its 
report was clear, logical, and based on the real merits of the 
case. It would seem that there was no occasion for further 
delay, but that the time for action had arrived. Justice to all 

" Cong. Doc. 457, No. 140, pp. 5-14. 



Political Readjustment 155 

parties demanded it. When the report of the commission reached 
the President, however, the country had just emerged from the 
throes of another presidential election resulting this time in 
the final overthrow of the Whigs. Mr. Tyler, with an eye single 
to the annexation of Texas, was willing to leave the much vexed 
Cherokee question to the tender mercies of his successor, who 
during the first months of his administration, was too concerned 
with important foreign relations and domestic affairs to trouble 
himself much about distracted Indians. 

Seeing no probability of adjustment, and having become 
satisfied that it would be impossible for them to maintain a 
peaceful and happy residence in the Cherokee Nation while John 
Ross and his party remained dominant, the Old Settlers and 
Treaty party, in the fall of 1845, resolved to seek a new home 
in Mexico. An exploring party of forty was sent out to find 
a suitable location. On their return a meeting was held at 
which it was decided to ask the United States to provide them 
a home in the Texas country upon the relinquishment of all 
their interests in the Cherokee Nation; or to assign a section 
of the Cherokee Nation to them with the privilege of 
adopting their own form of government and living under 
it without molestation. General Arbuckle and the Governor 
of Arkansas approved the measure and urged upon the 
authorities at Washington the necessity of legislation to 
carry it into effect." In response to their request the Com- 
missioner of Indian Affairs, William Medill, utterly disregard- 
ing the report of the Tyler commission, sent to President Polk 
a communication approving the plea and claiming that the act 
of union between the factions was of no binding force.^^ In- 
fluenced by this report the executive, in a message to Congress 
April 13, 1846, recommended that, as there was no probability 
of the different parties being able to ever live together in peace 
and harmony, the well-being of the whole tribe required that 

"Letter of Agent McKissick to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 
May 12, 1846; and General Arbuckle to Secretary of War, Feb. 12, 1848; 
also report of Agent McKissick July 4, 1846; Report of Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs, 1846. 

" Cong. Doc. 470, No. 298. 



156 JOHX Ross AND THE ChEROKEE INDIANS 

they should be separated and hve under different governments 
as distinct tribes/^ 

The National party resented this recommendation and vig- 
orously objected to any Federal interference with their inter- 
nal affairs, particularly to having their country divided and 
the authority of the United States courts extended over them/* 
regarding it as a distinct violation of the article in the New 
Echota Treaty^^ promising the Indians protection in the laws 
which they should make, providing only that these laws should 
not be inconsistent with those of the United States. While 
the project of separation was not carried out, it served to 
encourage the belief of the weaker parties that the Fed- 
eral Government would interfere in their behalf, and to 
the detriment of the whole tribe, to keep the factional spirit 
keyed to the highest pitch. Personal and party feuds resulted 
in a series of murders which led to the organization of bands 
of all factions for the purpose of depredation, retaliation, or 
protection ; and the country was again plunged into a reign 
of terror. 

The situation in the summer of 1846 became so serious that 
all parties recognized the necessity of the immediate settlement 
of the trouble. Accordingly, at the suggestion of the three 
factions whose representatives were in Washington, a com- 
mission was appointed with power to examine into the cause 
of the controverse}^ and adjust them if possible.^^ As a mea- 
sure of precaution a memorandum of agreement was drawn 
up, which bound all parties to abide absolutely by the decision 
of the commission and to sign such agreement as should be 
necessary to insure the execution of a treaty. The result was 
the conclusion of a treaty on August 6, 1846.^' 

It stated that "The lands now occupied by the Cherokee 
Nation should be secured to the whole Cherokee people for their 
common use and benefit", the United States to issue a patent 

" Richardson's Messages and Papers of the Presidents. IV, p. 430. 

" Cong. Doc. 476, No. 33. 

" Article 5. 

"Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Major Armstrong, June 24, 1846. 

" Ratified and proclaimed by the President, August 17, 1846. 



Political Readjustmext 157 

for the said land which, in case the Cherokccs became extinct or 
abandoned the country, should revert to the United States ; it 
was agreed that difficulties and party differences should cease; 
a general amnesty for all offenses was declared, and laws were 
to be passed for the equal protection of all ; all armed police or 
military organizations were to be disbanded and the laws exe- 
cuted by civil powers ; the United States agreed to reimburse to 
the Cherokees all sums unjustly deducted from the five million 
dollars under the treaty of 1835, and to distribute what re- 
mained of that amount according to the treaty. As to the 
claims of the Old Settlers to sole ownership of the lands of the 
Western Nation it was decided that they had no exclusive title 
as against the Eastern Cherokees who, by the treaty of 1835, 
had acquired a common interest in the western lands. On the 
other hand the Old Settlers were to be given one-third interest 
in what remained of the five millions received for the Eastern 
Nation, which was to be paid per capita. The Treaty Party 
was to be indemnified to the amount of $115,000.^^ The sum 
of $2,000 was allowed for the printing presses seized by the 
Georgia Guard in 1835, and $5,000 was to be equalh^ divided 
among those who had been deprived of their arms by General 
Scott. ^^ The treaty left to the Senate to decide whether the 
amount of subsistence was to be chargeable to the treaty fund 
and whether interest should be allowed, and at what rate and 
from what time. A clause also provided that the treaty should 
not take away from the Cherokees still living in the east their 
right to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation."" 

After all the years of bickering and delay, confusion and 
bloodshed, there was at last a treaty for justice and peace. 
What could have been more welcome to the distracted tribe 
than the adjustment of their standing with the United States 
and the establishment of peace and harmony at home? The 
bitterness of party feeling, however, was too deep-seated to 
yield, at this stage of the game, to so simple a remedy as a 
mere paper contract. Nor did the treaty bring the long 
expected and much needed financial relief to the country. 

"$5,000 going to the heirs of Major Ridge, and an equal sum to the 
families each of John Ridge and Elias Boudinot. 
"9 Vnitcd States Statutes at Large, p. 871. 
'" IlMd. 



158 JOHX Ross AND THE ChEROKEE InDIANS 

The elucidation of the ambiguous document was not the 
work of days or weeks but of months and years. After two 
years' study and dehbcration Commissioner Medill expressed 
it as his opinion that the five milhon dollars was in full for the 
entire session of the eastern land and nothing more should be 
paid for removal, subsistence or any other purpose."^ Against 
this interpretation the Cherokees entered a vigorous protest, 
and disagreement'- and contention on the part of both sides de- 
layed a settlement ; the question in all its perplexity drifted on 
for another couple of years. It was not until August, 1850, 
that the Senate Committee to whom the treaty had been re- 
ferred reached a conclusion. Their decision upheld the claim 
of the Cherokees that the charge for subsisting the emigrants 
during and a year after removal ought to be borne by the 
United States, and that the expense of removal agents was not 
rightfullj^ chargeable to the Cherokees, but should be borne by 
the Federal Government. Their award for these things, how- 
ever, was very conservative, and far from what the Cherokees 
had a right to expect. 

After the amount of the award had been fixed there was 
further delay in securing the necessary appropriation by Con- 
gress. The last item was provided for by an act of -February 
27, 1851."' This was done with the requirement that it should 
be in full settlement for all claims and demands of the Cherokee 
Nation against the United States under any treaty thereto- 
fore made by them. Instructions were finally issued in Sep- 
tember to John Drennan, Superintendent of the Southern Di- 
vision, to proceed without delay to make the payment. Thus 
Georgia had been in full possession of the Eastern lands of the 
tribe for fifteen years before the original owners had received 
any compensation whatever for them. 

Neither the Old Settlers nor the Emigrants were satisfied 
with the decision of the Senate. The former received what 
was paid to them under protest lest their acceptance of it 
should be so construed as to prevent them, in the future, from 

^ Conff. Doc. 521, No. 65, p. 6. 

'"Cong. Doc. 511, No. 146. 

"^Cong. Globe, 2nd Session 31st Congress, p. 602. 



Political Readjustment 159 

urging claims which they considered just but which were not 
admitted by the treaty. Before accepting the money and com- 
plying with conditions prescribed by Congress, the National 
Council registered its disapproval by a set of resolutions 
solemnly protesting against the injustice its people had suffered 
through the treaties of 1835 and 1846, copies of which they 
sent to both Houses of Congress. 

The per capita payment brought a short period of indi- 
vidual prosperity which showed itself in improved farms and 
farming implements, better buildings, and larger herds of cattle 
and horses. The Cherokee government, unfortunately, did not 
share this prosperity. With no revenue other than the small 
income derived from the invested funds in the United States, 
and with the heavy expenses incurred by the establishment and 
maintenance of schools and the carrying on of the government, 
the national debt increased year by year until it assumed em- 
barrassing proportions. The district schools began to languish 
for lack of funds and the high schools, in which they had taken 
such pride, were finally closed for the same reason. 

To add to the perplexity there swept over the southwest 
in the summer of 1854 a blasting south wind accompanied by 
a drought which blighted the promising crops, parched the 
vegetation and caused a partial water famine. Taken utterly 
by surprise, the people were unprepared for such an emergency 
and before the end of the year many of them had been reduced 
to destitution amounting almost to starvation. In this situa- 
tion, in the fall of 1854, they determined to send a delegation 
to Washington for the purpose of arranging, if possible, the 
sale of some of their surplus detached lands as a measure of 
relief from the burden of their public debt, and to replenish 
their exhausted school fund. A large part of the winter was 
spent in fruitless negotiations and the delegation was at last 
forced to return home empty handed, much to the disappoint- 
ment and dissatisfaction of their people.'* 

The only point gained was the removal of the garrison at 
Fort Gibson. This was not actually accomplished, however, 
until three years later. In 1857 Chief Ross in his message to 

'^^ Report of Commissioner of Indian A fairs, 1854. 



160 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

the Council authorized the site of the abandoned post to be 
laid off into town lots and sold to Cherokee citizens, the 
proceeds to go into their national treasury. Provision was 
made for the preservation of the burying grounds which con- 
tain the remains of several United States officers. The sale 
of the lots netted the nation the sum of $20,000, not a large 
amount, to be sure, but it was of some help. Notwithstanding 
civil unrest and financial embarrassment, together with other 
handicaps and annoyances, the Cherokees continued to gain 
ground slowly but surely, showing administrative ability of 
no mean order and a real capacity for Anglo Saxon civilization, 
the theory of certain sociologists to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Two Decades of Economic Development 

Having followed the political fortunes of the Cherokees in 
the west it may be of interest to glance at their industrial 
and educational development during the two decades following 
removal. 

Confused by the unsettled state of their own, and embar- 
rassed by the dilatory policy of the Federal Government, the 
Emigrants, nevertheless, had lost little time in trying to adjust 
themselves to an unfamiliar environment and to gain an eco- 
nomic footing in the new country. But a period of "hard 
times" was not to be avoided. The subsistence promised for one 
year by the United States^ could not be depended upon. Rations, 
dealt out irregularly, were frequently of such inferior quality 
as to be practically unfit for use. The flour and meal were 
musty and the beef, grass fed, was tough and unwholesome. 
For a supply of fresh meat they had to depend almost entirely 
upon primitive traps, blow guns, bows and arrows, and gigs;^ 
the guns of which they had been deprived in the east just be- 
fore removal had neither been returned nor paid for." The 
problem of building houses and clearing and cultivating fields 
was made difficult by the scarcity of carpenters, tools, and 
farming implements which the cost of transportation to such 
a remote region made doubly dear, and which most of the 
people had no money to buy at any price. 

They would have fared ill, indeed, the first few months after 
their arrival but for the older members of the community. In 
spite of political feuds and personal quarrels the main body of 
the Old Settlers received the newcomers with that hospitality 
to which they had been accustomed from time immemorial, 
which was a part of their ancient religion, and which they had 
not yet outgrown. And so nearly connected by bonds of kin- 
ship and clanship were the two divisions of the tribe that the 
helping hand of the one had not far to reach in order to relieve 

1 Treaty of 1835. 

* For spearing fish. 

» The treaty of 1846 contains an item of $5,000 to cover their value. 



162 John Ross and the Chehokee Indians 

the need of the other. The loan of a plow or an axe for 
several days, or a few bushels of corn until a crop was made, 
the gift of a hen and a setting of eggs, the use of a loom and 
enough yarn to weave a blanket or some cloth, helped to tide 
over the crisis and give "a start" to these victims of Andrew 
Jackson's Indian policy backed up by Anglo Saxon acquisi- 
tiveness under the guise of necessary economic development. 
The proverbial "lazy Indian" was hard to find among the 
Cherokee people for many years. It was a case of work or do 
worse with most of them ; and, although they have always been 
considered an abstemious people with few and simple wants, for 
a time, it taxed their ingenuity and energy to the utmost to 
provide the merest shelter and the barest subsistence. But 
the knowledge of agriculture and household arts learned in the 
old nation was gradually adjusted to meet the needs of the new 
in spite of various drawbacks ; and, in the course of a few years, 
there were good farms and comfortable homes with vegetable 
gardens, and orchards, for the more thrifty, while the most un- 
progressive full-blood had his log cabin and his maize patch. 

The land was found to be more desirable than had been 
expected. The uplands proved to be good farming land, while 
the river valleys were very fertile, and when cleared and cul- 
tivated produced richer harvests than the Georgia and Ten- 
nessee fields had afforded. Grass grew luxuriantly on the 
prairies, furnishing abundant pasturage for cattle, horses and 
sheep which throve marvelously without care or expense. Hogs 
ran wild in the woods, fattened on the mast and multiplied by 
tens. Game, such as prairie chickens, wild turkeys and deer, 
was plentiful, and wild fruit and berries flourished in their 
season. 

As in the old nation, the land was held in common, the im- 
provements only being the exclusive and indefeasible property 
of the individual.* Any Cherokee citizen, natural or adopted, 
might fence a farm and improve a home wherever his fancy or 
business judgment suggested, so long as he did not encroach 
upon the rights of a former settler. The unfenced land was the 
common property of the tribe. 

*Art. I, Sec. 1 of the Constitution of 1839. 



Two Decades of Economic Development 163 

There was no provision made for white settlers, except in 
the law making it compulsory for a Cherokee citizen employing 
a white man, to secure a permit, for which he paid by the month 
or the year, whether the laborer worked for wages or rented 
the land for a certain per cent of the crops. Another law 
granted to certain United States citizens the privilege of es- 
tablishing stores of general merchandise and engaging in trade 
under a license from the Cherokee government. 

Intermarried whites were given practically the same rights 
and privileges as the Indians themselves except that of holding 
office, but outsiders were not encouraged to come into the 
nation; those who persisted in doing so were considered in- 
truders and shown cold courtesy. Otherwise the country would 
have soon become a refuge for criminals and outlaws from the 
States and an asylum for all sorts of defective and distressed 
humanity who would have hung like a millstone about the neck 
of a nation already bowed under the burdens of its own people ; 
and the land hungry pioneers from the very states from which 
the Cherokees had been expelled would soon have been elbowing 
the Indian out of his new home just as they had done from the 
old. In spite of the laws and protests of the Cherokee Council 
and the "cold shoulder" given them by the Indians themselves, 
intruders and squatters proved a perpetual nuisance to the 
country. Washington Irving, in his Tour of the Prairies,^'' 
gives us a very good description of one of these rough, uncouth, 
rawboned sons of the frontier, who, with no very clear concep- 
tion of the distinction between thine and mine, showed scant 
consideration for the feelings and rights of others in his con- 
tinual search for more elbow room. When once he had gained 
a footing it was almost impossible to dislodge him. He and his 
children were always a demoralizing influence to the Indians, 
either through lawlessness or intermarriage, for he was often 
a fugitive from justice in the state from which he hailed and 
seldom reformed under frontier conditions. His sons and 
daughters, uneducated and possessing many of the traits of 
the parent, were not an elevating influence when they became 
Cherokee citizens by marrying into the tribe, as some of them 
did. 

^"Pagc 8. 



164! John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

Following the example of the south or their own interest 
and inclination, the Cherokees did not gather into towns and 
villages to any extent, but formed neighborhood settlements. 
These settlements were frequently, though not always, composed 
almost entirely of those related by blood and marriage, for, 
as has already been said, the clan tie was a strong bond with 
the Indians and bound them more or less strongly through all 
their changing fortunes. 

One of the most interesting of these neighborhood communi- 
ties was Park Hill, situated about five miles south of Tahlequah. 
Here a church and day mission had been started by Dr. Wor- 
cester, and a printing press set up, on which various kinds of 
interesting things were being printed, — tracts, hymns, a primer, 
the Bible in both Cherokee and Choctaw,^ and an almanac 
computed for the meridian of Fort Gibson containing all sorts 
of useful information arranged somewhat on the order of Benja- 
min Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, and printed in both 
the Cherokee and the English languages. 

The rich valley to the north of Park Hill commended itself 
to a number of the emigrants, among whom was Chief Ross. 
Selecting a site for a home about two miles from the mission 
station he built a modest little house which he called Rose Cot- 
tage. With the arrival of more prosperous days, which, how- 
ever, were slow in coming, the cottage gave place to a brick man- 
sion furnished with rosewood and mahogany, with silver plate 
and imported china. The grounds surrounding them were set 
Avith shrubbery and choice flowers after the most approved 
fashion of landscape gardening of the time, while the kitchen 
garden and the orchard were planned on a scale sufficiently large 
to supply the demands of the family table, never without guests, 
and to feed a retinue of house and field servants. A blacksmith 
shop, a kiln, a laundry, a smokehouse, a dairy, also negro cabins 
galore were gradually added to the equipment of the estate. 

Mr. Ross had married, in 1844, Miss Mary Brain Stapler, 
a young woman from Wilmington, New Jersey, whom he had 
met when on a trip east to put some boys in school. She 

° Missionaries among the Choctaws had succeeded in translating a part 
of the Bible into that language, and Dr. Worcester was printing it for them. 



Two Decades of Economic Development 165 

was a student in a boarding school at the time and he was a 
man of more than fifty. It was a case of love at first sight 
on both sides, and the union, in spite of the disparity of their 
ages proved to be a very happy one. They lived in rather 
magnificent style for the time, always keeping open house and 
frequently giving big dinners. The plantation which came to 
include a thousand acres or more was worked by slaves and 
proved to be immensely profitable. It was conducted like all 
the plantations of the south and everything in the way of 
food, clothing, and implements used on the plantation was 
raised or manufactured there. Only the luxuries of the "great 
house" and its inmates were imported from the outside. 
Although rumor, with her hundred tongues, spread the belief 
that such elegance as the chief and his family enjoyed could 
only have been secured by diverting part of the contents of the 
national money chest into his private coffers, satisfactory proof 
of the accusation is entirely lacking. 

From the first, slaver}^ became an established institution in 
the western nation just as it had been in the east. Those 
who could afford to do so took their servants with them when 
they emigrated. It was considered an indication of wealth and 
standing in the community to own negroes, consequently every- 
one who could afford to do so owned one or moi'e. Chief Ross in 
1861 had seventy, and other men of wealth were masters of 
as many or more. 

Missionaries of the old nation had either preceded the emi- 
grants to the west or followed them there. Of the Reverend 
Cephas Washburn, his mission at Dwight and his work among 
the Cherokees West, something has already been said. Of those 
who accompanied the emigrants. Dr. Butler, the Reverend 
Evans Jones,^ and others enjoyed the unbounded confidence 
of their adopted people. They were men of education and 
ability who could have filled with credit almost any pulpit in 
the country. But for the unparalleled services which he 
rendered the people, the full-blood Cherokees, Dr. S. A. Wor- 
cester'' stands out a unique figure among missionaries to the 

' Couch, Nevada. Pages of Cherokee Indian History. 

' Pilling, James C, Bibliography of the Iroquois Languages, pp. 170-175. 



166 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

Indians. It will be remembered that he was among the early 
missionaries in the old country and had shown his loyalty to 
the Cherokees by willingly suffering imprisonment for cham- 
pioning their cause in Georgia. He was a whole-souled, gen- 
erous man and a broad-minded, tolerant Christian, proclaiming 
that not the form of worship but the spirit of it, is pleasing to 
God ; not the making of a solemn vow, but the keeping of it 
proves one's title to life eternal. Doctor and educator as well 
as preacher, he was interested in every activity of Cherokee life, 
seeking to render efficient service wherever he was most needed, 
eager to bring physical relief to a sick baby, to shed mental 
light upon the mind of the humblest child, or to preach the 
gospel of salvation to benighted and sin-cursed men and women. 
Himself a scholar of no mean ability, his whole training was 
brought to bear upon the problem of bringing knowledge and 
Christianity within the range of those who did not understand 
the English language. In order to do this he planned to pre- 
pare textbooks on various subjects in the Cherokee language. 
At one time he began the arrangement and translation of a 
geography which he was compelled to give up because it took 
too much time from his work on the Bible. A grammar and a 
dictionary, which were in a forward state of preparation when 
he left Georgia, were lost with all the rest of his effects when 
the steamboat on which he was going west sank in the Arkansas. 
Many tracts, pamphlets and some sermons were printed in the 
Indian language and distributed freely among the full-bloods 
who read them eagerly. 

Upon his release from the penitentiary Dr. Worcester had 
found his hands tied as long as he stayed in Georgia or Tennes- 
see. Eager to be at his work again he therefore determined to 
go west just about the time the New Echota Treaty was nego- 
tiated.^ Unfortunately for him and the cause he was so eager to 
serve his motives in leaving at this time were misunderstood. 

*He was not in favor of the treaty and counseled Mr. Boudinot and 
others against signing it as long as it was opposed by a majority of 
the tribe. Drake, Biof/raphr/ and History of the Indians of North America; 
Couch; Mooney, p. 218; Pilling, Bibliography of the Iroquois Languages, 
pp. 40-42; Articles, Worcester; the Cherokee Phoenix; Report of Indian 
Commissioner, for 1843 (Worcester Letters). 



Two Decades of Economic Development 167 

Those who opposed the treaty accused him of deserting their 
cause, and when they found themselves in power in the west 
threatened to drive him from the country. This misunderstand- 
ing and the untimely death of Mr. Boudinot proved a serious 
handicap to his work to the end of his long and busy life, which, 
in spite of hardships and injustice, stands today as an example 
of what a consecrated mind coupled with a consuming energy 
may accomplish for education and Christianity. Sequoyah in- 
vented for the Cherokees an alphabet, and they proudly and ap- 
propriately hail him the Cadmus of their race. Dr. Worcester 
consecrated that alphabet to the purpose of raising the nation 
to a higher plane of living and thinking. Yet the name of the 
Messenger, as he was called, is scarcely mentioned in their fire- 
side history today. The Cherokees are not often chargeable 
with such lack of appreciation. 

Besides Butler, Worcester, and Jones there were other con- 
secrated men and women who preached and taught ni the 
Cherokee country. There were also native interpreters and 
preachers of ability and education. Jesse Bushyhead, Stephen 
Foreman, William Lasley and John Huss are some of them. 
These native preachers had the advantage of speaking first- 
hand to the people, and the eloquence which once thrilled 
listeners around the council fires, inspiring warriors to valorous 
action against the enemy, now spoke from the pulpit persuad- 
ing men to nobler lives and inspiring them to higher purposes 
and ambitions. Their ability to interpret and explain the 
Christian religion in terms familar to them through their old 
pagan faith, tribal customs and even superstititions appealed 
to the full-blood element who were converted to Christianity 
as they could have been by no white man, however able and 
zealous. It is unquestionably due in no small measure to them 
and their teachings that a Christian spirit dominated the masses 
of the Cherokees under circumstances which might have ren- 
dered God-fearing Anglo Saxons little better than savages. 
And as a civilizing and educating as well as Christianizing 
power their influence and that of the missionaries was exceed- 
ingly important. 



168 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

There had been no public school system in the old nation 
for the reason that, just at the time when their national finances 
might have justified them in starting one, Georgia had ex- 
tended her laws over the nation putting an end to all hope of 
progress in that direction. But it will be remembered that a 
school fund had been provided by the treaty of 1819, when the 
proceeds of the sale of a small tract of land in Alabama had 
been set aside for that purpose. The constitution of 1839 con- 
tains this clause: "Religion, morality, and knowledge being 
necessary to good government, the preservation of liberty, and 
the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education 
shall forever be encouraged in this nation".^ The Council 
three weeks later followed up the constitution by a law provid- 
ing for a school system to be organized by a board of education 
composed of three members. ^° Because of financial straits the 
school question languished for a time, but in 1841 a law was 
passed providing for the establishment of eleven primary schools 
to be distributed according to population in the various dis- 
tricts. The law also provided for a superintendent of educa- 
tion who should appoint, for each school, a board of directors 
composed of three members who should hold office on good be- 
havior and whose business it was to locate and superintend the 
building of school houses, to employ teachers for their respec- 
ive schools, to prescribe the kind of textbook to be used and the 
branches to be taught." Within five years there were eighteen 
schools^" in operation under these laws and an enrollment of 
six hundred and fifty-five pupils. Thirteen years later they 
had increased to thirty with an enrollment of fifteen hundred. 
All but two of the teachers were natives who proved themselves 
well qualified for their work.^^ The course of study included 

"Art. VI, Sec. 9. 

^"Cong. Doc. 411, No. 1098. 

" Information furnished by Mr. A. S. Wyley, Commissioner of Educa- 
tion for the Cherokees. 

"The salaries of the teachers averaged forty dollars a month. The 
school year was divided into two terms of five months each with one month's 
vacation in winter and one in summer. 

^Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1859, p. 178. 



Two Decades of Economic Development 169 

geography, history and the Testament, in addition to A, B, C, 
and the "Rule of Three"." 

In order to provide their youth with the advantages of a 
higher education the Council, in 1846, passed a law establishing 
two seminaries of high school rank, one for boys and one for 
girls. The former was located in the valley a little more than 
a mile from the Capitol; the latter, near Park Hill.^^ The 
corner stones were laid by Chief Ross on June 17, IS-IT, and 
the buildings were finished and ready to be opened three years 
later. They were two-story brick structures of colonial 
architecture protected on three sides with wide galleries sup- 
ported by huge brick columns. Each accommodated about a 
hundred students who boarded in the institution at a very 
reasonable price. Especial provision was made for indigent 
children, so that it was in the power of the poorest girl or 
boy who had enough ambition and energy to get a very fair 
education free of cost. Miss Sarah Worcester and jMiss Ellen 
Whitmire, two very superior young women, educated at Mount 
Holyoke, were engaged as the first teachers at the Park Hill 
Seminary, and Miss E. Jane Ross,^*^ who had been educated in 
the east was later added to the faculty. 

The course of study included geometry, geography, botany, 
arithmetic, history, Latin, Greek and such subjects as Watt's 
Improvement of the Mind, and Paley's Natural Theology and 
Intellectual Philosophy.^' Little attempt was made at indus- 
trial education except that each student was assigned by turns 
to some special duty in the general housekeeping scheme over 
which a rigid supervision was maintained by members of the 
faculty. Religious training was not neglected. The Bible was 
taught daily, while on Sunday religious services were conducted 
in the institution. 

The principal chief himself not infrequently attended the 
preaching service at the female seminary, his arrival and de- 

" The report of Mr. James Payne, first Superintendent of Schools of 
the Cherokee Nation, found in pamphlet report of the Board of Education 
for 1887. 

^® From which it took its name, the Park Hill Female Seminary. 

" A niece of John Ross. 

^''Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1854, pp. li23-24. 



170 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

parture always proving the most, interesting and exciting event 
of the day. His coming, viewed with far more interest than 
that of the preacher, was heralded by the students through hall 
and corridor, and groups of eager, bright eyed Indian girls 
filled every available window and doorway to view the splendid 
spectacle as the negro coachman drew up the team of blacks 
at the entrance with a flourish. And when the courtly chief, 
clad in broadcloth, descended to conduct the first lady of 
their land, arrayed in rich silks and real lace, into the seminary 
chapel their pleasure and pride bordered on ecstasy.^* 

The students of the neighboring institutions were no less 
enthusiastic in their admiration of Chief Ross, and occasionally 
some of the older boys had the temerity to walk out to Rose 
Cottage when they knew the chief was at home just for the 
pleasure and profit of a visit with him. Busy man of affairs 
as he was, he never denied them an interview, and subjects of 
interest were discussed as gravely and as courteously with them 
as business of state with the executive council. And, perhaps 
not least in importance to the mind of a hearty seminary boy, 
an invitation to stay to dinner was never neglected nor was 
it ever declined.^^ 

Notwithstanding the fact that the two seminaries were sus- 
pended for some time on account of lack of funds, sixty-two 
young women had graduated from the girls' school before the 
Civil War, and gone out to teach in the public schools or to 
take their places as heads of their own households. Perhaps 
a somewhat smaller number of young men had finished their 
training at the Male Seminary to take prominent places in 
politics, education and the ministry. In addition to these young 
men and women educated at home, a good many sons and 
daughters of the more well-to-do, sent east by their parents, 
were carrying off honors at such colleges as Princeton and 
Mt. Holyoke and coming home to take places of honor and 
usefulness among their people as doctors, lawyers, law makers 
and teachers. 

"Mrs. Eliza Alberty of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, "Aunt Eliza", who was 
one of these little girls, furnished this description. 

^^ Rev. Joe Thompson who was a student at the Male Seminary in these 
early days has many interesting reminiscences of this time. 



Two Decades of Economic Development 171 

The printing press seized in Georgia had never been re- 
turned, nor was it paid for when, in 1843, the Council passed 
an act authorizing the publication of a paper to be called the 
Cherokee Advocate which was to have for its object the infor- 
mation and encouragement of the tribe in agriculture, educa- 
tion, and religion. W. P. Ross, a nephew of the chief, who had 
graduated at Princeton at the head of his class, was made 
editor. The first number of the paper appeared in September, 
1844. 

Added to the political troubles which distressed the Cherokee 
Nation in the west there was threatened trouble with the 
Osages whose title to the western part of the Cherokee Nation 
had never been satisfactorily adjusted by the Federal Govern- 
ment when it was ceded to the Cherokees. Other wild tribes in 
the west were restless and discontented for fear of encroach- 
ment on their territory. Their menacing attitude at length 
came to be regarded with no little concern by the Cherokees, 
and in order to allay uneasiness and establish friendly rela- 
tions with them they decided to arrange a grand intertribal 
council where a definite understanding among them all might 
be reached. Accordingly runners were sent to all the tribes 
between the Cherokee Nation and the Rocky Mountains in- 
viting them to send deputations to a meeting to be held at 
Tahlequah in June, 1843. 

The invitation met with ready response. At the appointed 
time chiefs and head men of the Osages, Cheyennes, Kiawas, 
Comanches, Wichitas and other wild tribes of the plains"'^ to- 
gether with representatives of the civilized Creeks and Semi- 
noles began to arrive. The meeting proved to be literally a 
gathering of the clans. Such an assemblage of wild Indians, 
in all the regalia of war paint and feathers, beaded buckskin 
and bright hued blankets, with civilized aborigines wearing the 
conventional costume of the American citizen had never been 
witnessed before and may never occur again. 

The conference lasted ten days, during which time the 
visitors were given a taste of real Cherykee hospitality. Bar- 

'° Choctaws and Chickasaws were not represented in the meeting. 



172 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

becued beef, conutche,'' conohany," "dog ears" " and other In- 
dian substantials and dainties were served bountifully and freely 
to all. They played Indian games, smoked the peace pipe and 
listened to the interpretation of the wampum as rendered by the 
aged Chief Lowrey, the only man then living who understood 
its mysteries. Finally the various tribes entered into compacts 
of eternal peace and friendship, which, be it said to their credit, 
they have never broken. Then, well pleased with their enter- 
tainment, themselves and their hosts, they mounted their ponies 
and in single file rode solemnly back to their people. There 
was no further rumor of war in the land, nor were Cherokee 
hunting and trading parties, which frequently made expeditions 
to the plains, ever molested by Indians."* 

So strong was his hold upon the full-blood element that Mr. 
Ross's popularity did not seem to wane as the years went by, 
even when the government grew to be autocratic and imperial 
rather than republican and democratic. The principal ap- 
pointive offices were invariably filled with his personal friends 
or more often with his own relatives. Charges were made that 
he was using the chieftainship for personal aggrandizement 
and private gain and his friends and relatives were profiting 
by his patronage. There were doubtless some elements of 
truth in these accusations, but the party of the opposition was 
never able to prove them to his constituents nor to oust him 
from his position. Had it been able to do so there is grave 
doubt whether another man of the tribe before the Civil War 
had the ability, the training and the experience that would have 
made him equal to the emergencies that were constantly arising 
in the nation. Through long years of public life he had not 
only gained experience and training, but had proved himself re- 
sourceful, and systematic in discharging his public duties, dip- 
lomatic in his relations with the Federal Government, resolute 

^ A drink made by boiling pounded nutmeats. 

^''A preparation of Indian corn. 

=*Made of grated green corn rolled in corn husks and roasted in the 
ashes. 

=^ Information on this intertribal council was furnished by D. W. Lipe 
of Claremore, Oklahoma, who for many years held responsible positions 
under the Cherokee government and is well informed on all points of their 
history. Ross, Mrs. W. P., The Life and Times of W. P. Boss. 



Two Decades of Economic Development 173 

and undeviating in pursuing a definite fixed policy of national 
advancement in politics and education. If he sought to satisfy 
personal ambitions he also cherished a national pride, and with 
a broader and far more subtle vision than his fellows, looked to 
the future, still cherishing the dream of his young manhood to 
make the Cherokees the greatest nation of civilized Indians. It 
is doubtless due to this ambition and to his leadership that the 
tribe did not disintegrate into petty bands soon to fall the 
prey of land grabbers from the States. 

Plagued by droughts which destroyed their crops in 1854 
and again four years later, hindered by internal disorders and 
factional hatred, and embarrassed by the policy of the Federal 
Government the Cherokees nevertheless made slow, steady 
progress so that their agent was able to say of them a few 
months before they were overtaken by the Civil War that: 
"From their general mode of living the Cherokees will favorably 
compare with their neighbors in any of the States.""^ Their 
population was estimated at twenty-one thousand native Chero- 
kees, one thousand whites and four thousand negroes. They 
owned large numbers of cattle, hogs, horses and sheep and had 
in cultivation about one hundred and two thousand acres of 
land from which they raised abundant crops of wheat, oats and 
corn when the season was favorable.'*^ 

The twenty years between 1840 and 1860 form a period of 
transition when the Cherokees were thrown completely upon 
their own resources and the help of the missionaries for their 
development and advancement. But they had at last secured 
an independent existence and were at liberty to work out, un- 
trammelcd by state interference, their tribal salvation. The 
measure of economic success they achieved in the face of great 
odds is due to their individual efforts; the credit of their 
national policy as worked out in the public and high schools 
and in the government belongs largely to such men of their own 
tribe as H. D. Reese, Superintendent of Public Schools, William 
Shorey Coody and the Vanns of whom mention has been made, 
together with a number of other strong and able men in some of 
whose veins ran no drop of white blood. 

^Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1859, p. 173. 
*> Ibid. 



CHAPTER XIX 

The Civil War 

Before the Cherokces had fairly entered upon the high road 
to progress and national unity, mutterings of the approaching 
Civil War began to be heard even in this remote region. The 
excitement and bitterness involved in the issues of the presiden- 
tial election of 1860 ran like an electric current throughout 
the length and breadth of Indian Territory arousing the keenest 
interest among the entire population within its boundaries, 
but particularly among the citizens of the five great civilized 
tribes, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Seminoles and Chero- 
kees. They had all been removed from the southeast under 
circumstances similar to those under which the Cherokees had 
been removed. All of them had just emerged from the eco- 
nomic and political chaos into which they had been thrown by 
removal, and begun to acquire, in the face of the greatest 
difficulties, many of the arts and much of the science of civi- 
lization. They were fairly prosperous, contented and on good 
terms with the Federal Government whose treaties bound it 
to protect them from any foreign aggression. 

All of the tribes were slaveholders and had borrowed many 
of their other institutions, both domestic and social, from south 
of Mason and Dixon's line. Many of their citizens, too, were 
bound to the South by ties of blood and marriage. All of these 
influences tended to strengthen the sympathy of the Indians 
for the South and their interest in the cause of slavery. 

Indian superintendents and agents in the Indian Territory 
had almost all been southern and pro-slavery. Firmly be- 
lieving in the institution as of divine origin and as an economic 
blessing to both master and slave they were intolerant of abo- 
lition sentiments to the point of forbidding the teaching of 
them among the Indians. Missionaries and school teachers who 
were especially zealous in the dissemination of anti-slavery doc- 
trines were summarily sent from the country. One of them. 
Reverend John B. Jones, a Baptist missionary, who had de- 
voted much of his life to work among the Indians was warned 



The Civil War 175 

by the agent in September, 1860, to leave the country within 
three weeks because of an article published in a Northern paper 
stating that he was engaged in promulgating anti-slavery doc- 
trines among his flock. Others were also compelled to leave 
and the excitement aroused by these incidents continued to 
increase until the outbreak of the war and the beginning of 
actual hostilities. 

With the excitement incident to the election of 1860 the old 
factional spirit among the Cherokees blazed up with all its 
original fervor. Leaders of the Treaty party and the Old 
Settlers lined up with the pro-slavery people and organized 
themselves into secret societies called Knights of the Golden 
Circle, while the loyally inclined members of the tribe combined 
into an old organization known as the Kituwha, an ancient 
order revived for the purpose of opposing the pro-slavery ad- 
herents. The Kituwahs, who were chiefly full-bloods, came to 
be called Pin Indians from a pin which they wore as a distin- 
guishing badge in a certain position on the lapel of the coat or 
hunting shirt. ^ The Knights drew to themselves the majority 
of the slaveholders besides the restless element who welcomed 
any change in the hope of bettering their fortunes, paying off 
old scores or getting rid of the Ross regime. This lining up of 
the tribe on the eve of the Great Rebellion into two opposing 
parties based on long-standing feuds, augured ill for a com- 
munity which had so recently been restored to a semblance of 
national unity. The election of Lincoln and the secession of 
South Carolina were followed by the Cherokee Nation with as 
keen interest as by any other section in the Union, each fac- 
tion determined to make the nation serve its interests in the 
impending conflict. 

In the excitement and confusion in Washington during the 
early months of the struggle the importance to the Union of 
holding the loyalty of Indian Territory seems to have been un- 
derestimated, while the government showed a strange lack of 

^ The Cherokee Question, Pamphlet Report of the Commissioner of 
Indian A fairs to the President of the United State:, June 15, 1866, p. 26; 
Philadelphia North American, Jan. 24, 1862, Letter of S. W. Butler; Royce, 
Cherokee Nation of Indians, p. 325. 



176 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

conscience towards its treaty obligations to the Indians. With 
the South it was a different story. From the very outset of 
the trouble, even before the organization of the Confederacy, 
preliminary steps were taken to secure the sympathy and co- 
operation of the tribes of the southwest. Federal agents of 
the Five Tribes and Elias Rector, the head of the Southern 
Superintendency, began in the early winter to take an active 
part in fortifying the minds of the Indians against the in- 
coming administration and arousing sympathy for the southern 
cause. Douglas M. Cooper, agent of the Choctaws and Chick- 
asaws and an appointee of Buchanan, took advantage of the 
remoteness of his situation to work openly for secession. 

As a result the Chickasaw legislature on January 5 went so 
far as to call an intertribal council should a political separa- 
tion between the North and the South take place." The sug- 
gestion met with favor from all the Five Tribes except the 
Cherokees. Chief Ross objected to the plan on the ground that 
the controversy between the North and South was strictly a 
white man's quarrel and no concern of the Indians. He was 
overruled, however, and a council was called for February 17. 
The Choctaw Council, influenced by Cooper, without waiting to 
see what its neighbors would do, came out boldly on Feb- 
ruary 7 for the Confederacy on the ground that their national 
affections, education and interests bound them indissolubly in 
every way to the destiny of their neighbors of the South. ^ 
When the intertribal council met ten days later at the Creek 
Agency neither the Choctaws nor Chickasaws were represented. 
The Cherokee, Creek and Seminole delegations discussed the 
situation at length and arrived at the conclusion to simply do 
nothing; to keep quiet and comply with their treaty obliga- 
tions. Mutual expressions of good feeling were given and 
promises exchanged that whatever exigencies of the future 
might arise, bound by a common destiny, they would act in 
concert for the greatest good to all.* 

"" Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. I, p. 683; 
Abel, The Cherokees in the Civil War, American Historical Review, Vol. 
XV, p. 282. 

^ Ibid. This was the very day the southern Senators in Washington 
adopted resolutions advising secession. 

*Ibid; Abel, A. H. 



The Civil War 177 

This action of the Indian tribes was watched with the 
keenest interest by Arkansas, no part of the South being more 
vitally concerned in their attitude at this crisis. The Cherokee 
and Choctaw Nations hemmed in her whole western border, 
even encroaching, in the opinion of that state, upon her right- 
ful domain. The action of the Choctaws had been gratifying. 
Cooperation of the Cherokees must be secured at all hazards. 

More than three months before the state seceded. Governor 
Rector Avrote Chief Ross a very ingratiating letter calling at- 
tention to the fact that the Cherokees in their institutions, 
productions, latitude and natural sympathies were allied to 
the common brotherhood of slaveholding states, and assuring 
him that it was an established fact that the Indian country was 
looked upon by the incoming administration "as a fruitful field 
ripe for the harvest of Abolitionists, free-soilers and northern 
mountebanks". He promised to give the Cherokees protection 
in their exposed condition and to assume the monetary obli- 
gations of the Federal Government to them if they would join 
the South in the defense of her firesides, her honor, and her 
institutions.^ 

Mr. Ross replied in a masterly letter expressing the regret 
and the solicitude of the Cherokees for the unhappy relations 
existing between the two sections of the country and hoping 
for the restoration of peace and harmony, at the same time 
declaring, in no uncertain terms, the loyalty of his people to 
the Federal Government. The Cherokees, he reasoned, had 
placed themselves- under the protection of the United States 
and were bound to enter into no treaty with any foreign power, 
neither with any individual nor citizen of any state. The faith 
of the United States was solemnly pledged to protect them 
in their land titles and all their individual rights and interests 
of person and property. The Cherokees were inviolably allied 
with the United States in war and were friends in peace. While 
their institutions, locality and natural sympathy were un- 
equivocally with the slaveholding states and the social and com- 
mercial intercourse between the Cherokee Nation and Arkansas 

^Official Records of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. 13, pp. 490-92; Vol. 1, 
p. 683; also, Moore's Rebellion Records, Vol. 2, Doc. 114. 



178 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

were of great importance to his people these interests must be 
subordinated to the higher one of his nation's honor. *^ 

Not satisfied with this reply, citizens of western Arkansas 
and the commandant at Fort Smith brought strong pressure 
to bear upon the chief demanding to know on what ground he 
stood, as they preferred an open enemy to a doubtful friend/ 
To them he replied that the Cherokees would take no part in 
the trouble. Weak, defenseless and scattered over a large sec- 
tion of country in the pursuit of agricultural life, without 
hostility to any state, and with friendly feeling to all, they 
hoped to be allowed to remain neutral, for persons so gallantly 
tenacious of their own rights would respect those of others. 
Being fully aware of the defenseless condition of the Cherokees 
their friends would surely not expect them to destroy their 
national and individual rights and bring around their hearth- 
stones the horrors and desolation of a civil war prematurely 
and unnecessarily. "I am — the Cherokees are your friends" 
he assured them, "but we do not wish to be brought into the 
feud between yourselves and your northern brethren. Our 
wish is for peace — peace with you and peace at home"® But 
the old chief was crying "peace, peace !" when there was no 
peace. 

The Confederate Provisional Congress, doubtless urged on 
by Arkansas and Texas, and appreciating the strategic po- 
sition of Indian Territory in relation to Colorado and Kansas 
and its importance as a source of food supply,^ created a 
Bureau of Indian Affairs as early as the middle of March, with 
an appropriation of $5,000 for its support, and attached it 
to the War Department. David L. Hubbard of Alabama was 
placed at the head with instruction to repair immediately to 
the Indian country where he would make known to all the 
tribes the desire of the Confederate states to protect and de- 
fend them against the rapacious and avaricious designs of their 

^Official Records of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. 1, p. 683; Moore's 
Rebellion Records, Vol. 2, p. 392. 

' Moore's Rebellion Records, Vol. 2, p. 393. 

» Ibid, pp. 393-4. 

^Ofickil Records of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 8, p. 697. 



The Civil War 179 

common enemy whose real intention was to emancipate their 
slaves and rob them of their lands/" 

Illness prevented Mr. Hubbard from carrying out his inten- 
tion of going in person to the Indian Territory but he wrote 
to Chief Ross, and in addition to his instructions reminded him 
that nearly all the funds of the Cherokees, representing their 
annuities and school funds, were invested in southern securities 
which debts were already forfeited unless the Cherokees joined 
the Confederacy. 

To this Chief Ross replied in most dignified and courteous 
language, repeating his reasons for holding a position of neu- 
trality, and assuring Mr. Hubbard that, if the institutions, 
locality and long years of neighborly deportment and inter- 
course did not suffice to assure him of the friendship of the 
Cherokees no mere instrument of mere parchment could do 
so. "We have no cause to doubt the entire good faith with 
which you would treat the Cherokee people, but neither have 
we any cause to make war against the United States, or to 
believe that our treaties will not be fulfilled and respected. At 
all events a decent regard to good faith demands that we should 
not be the first to violate them." It was not the business of the 
Cherokees, he thought, to determine the character of the con- 
flict going on in the states. It was their duty to keep them- 
selves free from entanglements and afford no ground to either 
party to interfere with their rights. 

As to the question of whether the Cherokees would re- 
ceive kinder treatment at the hands of the South than could 
be expected from the North, he remarked significantly, that the 
settled policy of acquiring Indian lands had always been a 
favorite one with both sections, and but few Indians north or 
south pressed their feet upon the soil of their fathers. ^^ 

Meanwhile two events had taken place destined to have im- 
portant bearing upon Cherokee neutrality. In April all the 
Federal troops were withdrawn from Indian Territory and it 
was immediately occupied by the Confederacy and formed into 
the Military District of Indian Territory, with the brave Texas 

" Official Records of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 3, p. 577. 
" Ibid, Vol. 13, 499. . 



180 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

Ranger, Benjamin F. McCulloch, in command. With a regi- 
ment from each of the states, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, 
and with instructions to raise additional regiments among the 
Five Tribes to be attached to his command, he prepared to 
estabhsh headquarters at some suitable place in the Cherokee 
Nation.^" 

The Knights of the Golden Circle, in full sympathy with 
the plan, decided that the time was ripe for them to lend a 
hand. Realizing the weakness of their numbers they determined 
upon a strategic move to raise the rebel flag over the capitol 
at Tahlequah, guarding their intentions with the greatest 
secrecy.^^ Great was their discomfiture, therefore, when they 
arrived on the appointed day to find the flinty streets of the 
little town filled with stonier faced full-bloods, gathered from 
all parts of the Cherokee Nation for the purpose of checkmat- 
ing them. 

Baffled and outwitted and fearing violence from the de- 
termined Kituwhas the Knights posted a messenger after Mr. 
Ross at Park Hill, who was ignorant of what Avas on foot five 
miles away. Accompanied by Mrs. Ross, a loyal Union sym- 
pathizer, he hastened to the scene of action. There the Knights 
plied him with arguments and persuasions, but all to no effect. 
The people presently dispersed quietly to their homes,^* but not 
to the waving of the "Stars and Bars", nor to the music of 
the "Bonnie Blue Flag". 

Chief Ross, fearing the demoralizing effect upon the tribe 
of the Tahlequah incident and the plan for establishing Confed- 
erate headquarters in the Cherokee Nation, issued a proclama- 
tion, on May 17, counseling the people to cultivate peace and 
harmony among themselves and to observe in good faith strict 
neutrality towards the states threatening Civil War.^^ 

Disappointed in the failure of the Knights and finding his 
own scheme firmly opposed by Chief Ross, whom he was as yet 
unwilling to antagonize. General McCulloch changed his plans 

"Abel, The Indians in the Civil War, p. 284. 

^' Letter of S. W. Butler, Philadelphia North A merican, Jan. 24, 1863. 
"Ibid. The Cherokee Question, p. 26; Royce, The Cherokee Nation 
of Indians, p. 325. 

" Official Records of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 13, p. 489. 



The Civil War 181 

and began mustering his forces at Fort Smith, just over the 
Arkansas line,^® Determined, however, that the Cherokees 
should eventually fight with the Confederacy, he was only biding 
his time. 

It was at this period in the crisis that the picturesque 
figure of Albert Pike appeared upon the Indian horizon. He 
was a Bostonian by birth, had studied law at Harvard and 
taught school in New England. Responding to the call of the 
west in early manhood he joined Bent's expedition to Santa Fe 
in 1832 and spent a few months in New Mexico. Returning by 
way of Fort Smith he determined to settle in Arkansas. Here 
he taught school, practiced law and engaged in literary pur- 
suits. Acquaintance with the Indians aroused a genuine 
interest in the wrongs they had suffered at the hands of his own 
race, and he became the avowed friend and advocate of the red 
man. When the Civil War broke out he declared for secession 
and offered his services to the Confederacy in effecting alliance 
with the tribes of the southwest.^ ^ The Confederacy promptly 
recognized that there were none better fitted for this task by 
commissioning him to negotiate treaties of friendship and alli- 
ance with the nations of Indian Territory. 

As his mission was one that required promptness he set out 
at once, stopping on the wa}' for an interview with General 
McCulloch at Fort Smith. Here a party of Cherokees repre- 
senting the Knights of the Golden Circle called upon him to find 
out whether the Confederate states would protect them against 
Mr. Ross and the Pin Indians if they should organize and take 
up arms for the South. ^^ 

He assured them of Confederate protection and arranged 
a meeting with them and their friends at the Creek Agency two 
days after a conference which he expected to have with Chief 
Ross and General McCulloch at Park Hill.^^ Attended by a 
mounted escort in all the splendor of uniform and military 
trappings he then set out for Indian Territory. As the caval- 

" Snead, The Fight for Missouri, p. 230. 

^'Official Records of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 2, pp. 580-581; Abel, 
Indians in the Civil War, p. 285. 

^ The Cherokee Question, p. 26. 

« Ibid. ' 



182 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

cade swept down the Line Road to Evansville and on towards 
the Cherokee capital its magnificent appearance was well 
designed to impress the simple natives with the greatness of the 
government which it represented. There are men and women 
still living who remember the occasion as one of the most inter- 
esting and dramatic episodes of the war in that part of the 
country. 

Arriving at Park Hill somewhat in advance of his attend- 
ants, General Pike was received by the chief with his accus- 
tomed hospitality and irreproachable courtesy. Here General 
McCulloch presently joined him and negotiations for a treaty 
of alliance were formally opened. Chief Ross took a firm stand, 
repeating his determination to remain neutral and his argument 
that it would be a cruel thing for the Confederacy to force a 
weak and defenseless people into a quarrel not their own. 
While frankly admitting that all their sentiments and feelings 
were on the side of the South he declared that he could not 
permit his people to become involved in any way if he could 
prevent it. They were unable to shake the purpose of the old 
Chief by force of argument or diplomatic strategy, and the 
conference came to a close with the promise of General McCul- 
loch to respect the neutrality of the Cherokees and to refrain 
from placing troops in their nation unless it became necessary 
in order to expel a Federal force or to protect the Southern 
Cherokees."" 

Perhaps General McCulloch made the promise in good faith. 
A few days later he wrote Mr. Ross again assuring him of his 
intention of respecting the agreement of neutrality, but now 
insisting that all Cherokees who were in favor of joining the 
Confederacy should be allowed to organize into military com- 
panies as Home Guards for the purpose of defending themselves 
in case of an invasion from the North."^ 

Mr. Ross, too keen to be drawn into a scheme which would 
virtually commit him to the Confederacy without any of the 
advantages of a formal treaty, replied that he could not give 
his- consent to such a plan. It would not only violate Cherokee 

^ The Cherokee Question, p. 26. 

=^ Official Records of the BebeUion, Series I, Vol. 3, p. 592. 



The Civil War 183 

neutrality but would place in their midst a band of organized 
and armed men not authorized by Cherokee laws and not amen- 
able to them."" 

Out of patience with what he considered the irritating 
obstinancy of Mr. Ross, General McCulloch began collecting 
troops at Sculleyville, in the northern part of the Choctaw 
Nation near the Cherokee line, with the avowed purpose of 
intimidating the loyal Cherokees and forcing Chief Ross into 
abandoning his position of neutralty. 

General Pike on leaving Park Hill pressed on to the Creek 
Agency where he had expected to meet and arrange terms with 
the southern faction of the Cherokees. To his disappointment 
they failed to appear'^ and he passed on to the west where he 
busied himself in arranging treaties with the Choctaw and 
Chickasaw Nations and with various bands of western Indians. 
The former, after signing treaties, availed themselves of the 
privilege of sending delegates to Richmond, and issued a proc- 
lamation to the neighboring nations urging them to form an 
alliance, offensive and defensive, against Lincoln's hordes 
and Kansas robbers."'* 

As the Confederate Commissioner made his way westward 
arranging treaties with the Indians, and as the marshaling of 
forces on the borders went foward with vigor, the position of 
the Cherokees grew daily more precarious. The Creeks and 
the majority of the Seminoles still remained faithful to their 
agreement of the previous winter, but the Federal Government 
showed no intention of sending them relief and protection. 

Realizing that something must be done quickly. Chief Ross, 
with the support of Hopothleyohola, leader of the loyal Creeks, 
sent out a call for an intertribal council to be held near 
Antelope Hills, in the extreme western part of Indian Terri- 
tory. The purpose was to weld the western tribes into an 
independent Indian Confederacy with strength enough to com- 
mand respectful attention from both sections before General 

" Ibid, pp. 596-7. 

^ Afterwards they gave as their reason the fear that they would be 
murdered by the Ross party if they openly sided with the South. The 
Cherokee Question, p. 25. 

'^Official Records of the RebeUion, Series I, Vol. 13, pp. 585-7. 



184) John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

Pike could arrange treaties with them. The Council was held 
and the representatives entered willingly into the proposed 
compact, but the ultimate purpose of the plan was defeated by 
General Pike, who, having received intimation of it, succeeded 
in securing an agreement with a faction of the Creeks while 
their representatives were in council at Antelope Hills, "^ 

The failure of the Indian Confederacy, the neglect of the 
loyal Indians by the Federal Government and the concentration 
of Confederate forces on their border had caused the loyal 
Cherokees keen disappointment and alarm. Then came news 
of the Battle of Wilson Creek, with an exaggerated account of 
the discomfiture of Union forces. McCulloch's army was 
marched back to the borders of the Cherokee Nation and the 
Cherokees were compelled to decide promptly whether they 
would take up arms for the North or the South. 

Faced with this situation Chief Ross called his Council 
together August 21, 1861, for the purpose of taking into con- 
sideration the question of the difficulties and dangers surround- 
ing their nation and to determine the most available method 
of procedure. As it was a question of vital interest to the whole 
tribe a call was sent summoning everyone to a conference at 
Tahlequah. The situation was so critical and the tension of 
feeling so highly strung that a large per cent of the voting 
population responded. On the appointed day about four thou- 
sand Cherokee men were assembled on the capitol square. The 
southern party, seeing their opportunity, and encouraged by 
citizens of Arkansas, turned out in full force and full arms. By 
their firmness of speech and domineering manner they awed 
into silence and nonresistance any spirit of neutrality which 
yet manifested itself. Agent Crawford took a prominent part 
in the meeting, painting in glowing colors, the advantages of 
secession to the tribe. ^" 

Chief Ross in his message to the Council, after having 
justified his previous policy of neutrality on the ground of good 
faith and expediency, declared that the Cherokees had at last 
come to the parting of the ways. Neutrality was no longer 

=^ The Cherokee Question, p. 27. Royce, The Cherokee Nation of In- 
dians, p. 327. 

» Abel, The Indians in the Civil War, p. 288. 



The Civil War 185 

possible. Since they had been deserted by the Federal Gov- 
ernment they owed no further allegiance to it. There was no 
longer any reason to doubt that the Union was dissolved : 
there was likewise no cause for hesitation as to the course the 
tribe should pursue : their geographical position and domestic 
institutions allied them, unquestionably, to the South. '^ 

It has been charged that the chief was forced into this 
change of sentiment in much the same way the stamp distribu- 
tors of 1765 were compelled to stand before the rabble and 
shout "liberty, property and no stamps :" that part of his 
speech in the excitement and heat of the moment was miscon- 
strued either intentionally or unintentionally, and that what 
he intended for a noncommital, pacifying address was reported 
as a fiery denunciation of the Union. 

That he had just cause to denounce the treatment his 
people had received and were receiving from the Union there 
is no question of a doubt, but there are so many conflicting 
versions of the story even today by those who participated in 
the meeting, and the documents contain such contradictory 
statements that a positive conclusion of what he really said 
and did is not easily reached."® At any rate the convention 
unanimously adopted a resolution to abandon the relations 
with the Federal Government and to form an alliance with the 
Confederacy if the latter would guarantee to them the payment 
of an amount equal to their invested funds. 

A messenger was forthwith dispatched to General Pike to 
apprise him of the action of the Council and to invite him to 
return to the Cherokee Nation for the purpose of arranging 
a treaty with their government. He was met at Fort Gibson 
by Colonel Drew's regiment of home guards composed chiefly 
of full-bloods and Pins, which had been raised by order of the 
National Council, and conducted with some ceremony to Park 
Hill, where a treaty was arranged. 

=^ Official Records of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 13, p. 501. This is 
the report of a message delivered to the Council October 9, in which is 
given a summary of his message of August 21. 

^ The Cherokee Question, Various reports and letters ; The Ross cor- 
respondence; The Proceedings of the Cherokee National Council for 1863; 
Cong. Doc. 1232, No. 52. 



186 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

The third article of the treaty states that the Confederate 
States, having accepted a protectorate over the Cherokee 
Nation, solemnly promised never to abandon or desert it, and 
that under no circumstances would they permit the Northern 
States or any other enemy to overcome them and sever the 
Cherokee from the Confederacy, but that they would, at any 
cost, and all hazards protect and defend them and maintain 
unbroken the ties created by identity of interests and institu- 
tions, and strengthened and made perpetual by this treaty. 
The Confederate states bound themselves to pay the Cherokees 
the sum of $250,000 on the ratification of the treaty, to continue 
the annuities they had formerly received from the United States 
and to indemnify them for all losses that they might suffer as 
a result of abrogating their treaties with the United States. 
On the other hand, the Cherokees agreed to furnish all their 
able-bodied men to the Confederate States for military service 
against the United States, with the stipulation that their 
forces should not be required to march outside of their own 
country without their consent."'' 

On the same day the Cherokee treaty was negotiated, repre- 
sentatives of the Osages, Senecas, Quapaws, and Shawnees, by 
invitation of Chief Ross, met General Pike at Park Hill, where 
they also arranged treaties of alliance with the Confederacy. 
Afterwards they held a conference with Mr. Ross at his resi- 
dence, smoked the great peace pipe and renewed their agree- 
ments of eternal peace and friendship. ^° 

Although the Cherokees had severed, their relations with 
the Federal Government very reluctantly they immediately 
began preparations to maintain their new alliance. The regi- 
ment of Home Guards under Colonel John Drew was now placed 
at the services of the Confederacy, and a second regiment 
recruited and placed under the command of Colonel Stand 
Watie. Chief Ross entered heartily and enthusiastically into 
the spirit of the preparations, entertaining high hopes that 
all factional differences would disappear and that his people 
would become united once more when they joined forces to 

^Confederate Statutes at Large, pp. 394-411. 
•" The Cherokee Question, p. 28. 



The Civil War 187 

repel a common enemy. Just after the signing of the Confed- 
erate treat}^ he had given his hand to Stand Watie as an 
expression of his desire to heal the old breach, and Watie had 
accepted it in all courtesy and good faith. No one realized 
more clearly than the old chief that the cost of war would be 
dear to his people at any price. Yet, if the Cherokees could 
emerge from the smoke of battle a united nation, the struggle 
would not have been without its compensations. 



CHAPTER XX 

The Civil War, Concluded 

As the Cherokees were the first to violate the compact of 
neutrality entered into with other tribes at the Creek Agency 
in February and at the Antelope Hills Conference some months 
later, natural courtesy and a due regard to the good will of 
their neighbors rendered necessary an explanation of their 
changed attitude, consequently Chief Ross sent a circular letter 
to the various tribes explaining the causes which impelled the 
Cherokee Nation to join the Confederacy.^ He even went so 
far as to suggest the desirability of a union of all the Red 
Brethren with the Richmond government. One of these letters 
was dispatched to Hopothleyohola, who had been a very good 
friend of the Cherokee chief and had supported him loyally in 
his stand for neutrality. The letter was returned, with a note 
written across the back, asking if INIr. Ross were really the 
author of it." 

This sharp thrust at Cherokee constancy was not lost upon 
the keen witted and diplomatic Chief Ross who immediately 
sent a special delegation, headed by Joseph Vann, the second 
chief of the nation, on a mission of peace to the Creeks to 
explain more fully the position of the Cherokees and to invite 
their chiefs to visit the Cherokee Council then in session.^ But 
Hopothleyohola would have nothing to do with them. They 
had broken a compact and were not to be trusted again. He 
would go his way and they were free to go theirs. His mind 
was made up, for reasons of his own, to remain loyal to the 
Union. 

With two-thirds of his tribe in war paint and fighting gear 
he was preparing to defend its interests in the Creek Nation 
at all costs. Not that the old Creek chief was actuated by 
such motives as inspired Webster's immortal words, "liberty 
and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." In fact he 

* The Cherokee Question, p. 20, the Correspondence between Chief Ross 
and Hopothleyohola is found in full, pp. 16-20. 
"^ Ibid, p. 17. 
' Ibid. 



The Civil War 189 

did not understand American patriotism. How could he, or 
the members of his tribe or of any of the Indian tribes? Indian 
Territory was not an integral part of the Union as was Texas 
or Arkansas, but was practically a foreign dependent ally. Its 
citizens were a people apart from the Federal Government with 
a patriotism all their own, which took no cognizance of such 
common bonds of interest as the celebration of Thanksgiving 
and the Declaration of Independence. He had a grudge to pay 
and this occasion furnished the opportunity. And who can 
criticise the chief of a recently barbarous tribe for going to war 
with such an incentive when, if the truth were told, half of the 
white men on both sides in the conflict were actuated by no 
higher motives ? If this fact of the relation of the Indians to the 
Federal Government is kept clearly in mind, along with some 
others which must linger in the memory of all who have read 
the preceding pages of this story, it will be less difficult to un- 
derstand why Indian loyalty was likely to shift from time to 
time with the changing fortunes of war. 

But Hopothleyohola was not one to waver in his allegiance. 
With an armed force he made a raid upon his former friends, 
the Cherokees, driving off stock and wantonly destroying other 
property.* Then marshaling his forces in the Creek Nation, 
he prepared to stand his ground against an overwhelmingly 
superior number of Choctaws, Chickasaws, Scminoles and Cher- 
okees under Colonel Cooper. A stronghold was chosen and 
intrenchments thrown up in a bend of the Bird Creek about 
twelve miles north of Tulsey town.^ This, Cooper prepared to 
attack in December. 

On the eve of battle the Cherokee troops under Colonel 
Drew deserted in a body, swearing that they would willingly 
shoot Yankees, but when it came to fighting their old friends 
and neighbors, the Creeks, they drew the line. Cooper, with 
his remaining forces, attacked the Creeks and easily defeated 
them, driving them into the hills beyond. Still pursuing them, 
he finally pushed them northward beyond the Kansas line, fol- 

* Official Records of the RebeUion, Series I, Vol. 8, p. 209. 
«Now Tulsa. The Creeks seem to have had a weakness for horseshoe 
bends. 



190 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

lowed by a straggling train of helpless women and children.^ 
The winter of 1861-2 was a bitter one for these Indian 
refugees. Loyal bands from the Five Tribes, together with 
detachments from other tribes kept arriving, until the aggre- 
gate numbered over six thousand, camped along the southern 
border of the state. Shelterless, half naked, barefooted and 
nearly starved, they presented a sorry sight.'^ All attempt of 
the Federal authorities to reheve them resulted only in furnish- 
ing opportunity for peculation to Government agents and 
state politicians who shamelessly feathered their own nests at 
the expense of shivering, shelterless and starving women and 
children. There seemed no way of relieving the situation as 
long as the Indians remained in Kansas. The only hope of 
relief lay in their return to Indian Territory, now occupied 
by Confederate troops. Before the Indians could return in 
safety the country would have to be cleared of the enemy and 
reoccupied by Federal forces, which were so urgently needed 
in other quarters just at this time.^ 

This was the situation when Senator Lane, the originator 
of the "homeward bound" movement, went to Washington in 
January, 1862, and there so convincingly presented the cause 
of still "Bleeding Kansas" and of the Indian refugees, that he 
was given permission to organize an expedition at once to carry 
out his purpose.'' Owing to petty jealousies and to the spirit 
of insubordination, if not rank duplicity, on Lane's part, to 
gain his ends, the expedition soon fell into disrepute as "Lane's 
jay hawking expedition." The project was thus delayed from 
month to month until a petty game of personal ambition and 
state politics could be played out, the Indians, meanwhile, dying 
of starvation and exposure. 

While political intrigues and petty jealousies were sacri- 
ficing the Union Indians in Kansas, General Curtis was march- 
ing his troops across Missouri for the purpose of avenging 

8 Official Records of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 8, pp. 713, 715 ; also, 
pp. 4-33. 

''Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1863, 1863; Abel, The 
Indians in the Civil War, p. 389. 

" Ibid. 

» Official Records of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 8, p. 535. 



The Civil War 191 

Lyon and Wilson Creek, and of recovering Federal forts in 
Arkansas. The Confederate forces west of the Mississippi in 
command of Major General Earl Van Dorn were concentrated 
in northwest Arkansas to oppose him. They consisted of 
Sterling Price's volunteer troops, chielly from Missouri, 
McCulloch's regulars, and several regiments of Indians under 
General Albert Pike.^" The opposing armies met near Fayette- 
ville, Arkansas, early in March^^ and two engagements took 
place at Pea Ridge and Elk Horn Tavern. The result was a 
defeat for the Confederacy, due in part to a lack of cooperation 
among commanding generals. Both were bloody battles in 
which Indians on one side were pitted against Germans on the 
other. 

Deeds of revolting barbarism were perpetrated upon the 
dead and dying by the scalping knife, sword and bayonet. The 
country at large was horrified to hear that the first scratch of 
battle had revealed the savage under the epidermis of the most 
cultured and civilized Red Skin, and jumped to the conclusion 
that all Indians employed in the engagement had reverted to 
their primitive customs in warfare.^- The truth is certainly 
bad enough to need no exaggeration. As a matter of fact eight 
scalped heads were counted on the battle field after the fight 
was over.^" There was perhaps a greater number of mutilated 
bodies of Confederate dead. The scalps, without doubt, were 
counted as trophies by Indian braves who had not yet learned 
that such unrefined methods of killing their fellow men were not 
to be countenanced in civilized warfare. Their own people, 
deeply mortified over the offense, condemned it severely, but 
were unable to locate the offenders for punishment." 

The trail of blood from the mutilated bodies of southern 
soldiers, however, leads in quite another direction until it stops 

^•^ After completing his work of negotiating Indian treaties, Pike was 
made "Commander of all the Indian troops in tlie Confederate service." 
Official Records of the EebeUion, Series I, Vol. 8, p. 690. 

"March 6-8. 

^ Official Records of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 8, p. 235. 

" Ibid, pp. 195, 207, 236. 

"John Ross to Albert Pike, Ross Mss. Information also furnished by 
several Cherokee men who fought in the Civil War. 



192 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

at the door of a band of men whose ancestors on the banks of 
the Rhine had been undergoing the process of civilization ever 
since the time of Charlemagne, or before.'" Thus it would seem 
that, under the savage influence of war, the power of atavism 
is as strong after a thousand years of evolution as after a 
hundred. Be that as it may, the Cherokees rendered splendid 
service in the battle of Pea Ridge in spite of the contempt in 
which they were held by the commanding general. 

After these defeats the white troops were drawn off towards 
the east where they were needed to stay the march of the Union 
army steadily advancing southward down the eastern Missis- 
sippi Valley. Colonel Drew's regiment went into camp at the 
mouth of the Illinois River in the Cherokee Nation. Colonel 
Watie was sent on a raiding expedition into southwest Missouri 
and General Pike established headquarters in the southwestern 
corner of the Choctaw Nation,^*' at Fort McCulloch. 

At length, after various delays, the Lane expedition had 
been organized and was ready to march into Indian Territory. 
Leaving Humbolt, Kansas, the latter part of June it crossed 
the southern border of the state five thousand strong. The 
advance guard was led by General Weer, who, upon entering 
the Indian country, offered to open negotiations with the Chero- 
kees to return to their former alliance. Through Chief Ross 
they courteously declined the offer, saying that a treaty of 
alliance had already been entered into with the Confederacy, 
the reasons for which were too well known to Colonel Weer for 
it to be necessary to recapitulate them.^^ 

The country was now in a defenseless condition and a letter 
was sent post haste to General Hindman, who had been placed 
in command of the Trans-Mississippi District on the death of 
McCulloch at Pea Ridge, calling on him for protection against 
the invading army. The commanding general at once ordered 
General Pike northward to join the Cherokee regiments in the 
vicinity of Fort Gibson. Pike, whose forces were poorly 
equipped to meet the enemy, for reasons which will appear later, 

^ Official Records of the RebeUion, Series I, Vol. 8, pp. 195, 482. 

" Near Armstrong Academy. 

"Moore's Rebellion Records, Vol. 5, pp. 549-550. 



The Civil War 193 

sulked in his tent, ignoring the order. After it had been per- 
emptorily repeated several times he resigned, and Douglas M. 
Cooper was put in command. Cooper moved northward 
promptly but too late to prevent a Confederate defeat at 
Locust Grove, about thirty miles north of Tahlcquah. Here 
a small command composed of the Cherokee troops under 
Colonel Watie and Colonel Drew and a battalion of Mis- 
sourians under Clarkson, offered a brave resistance to the 
Kansas forces, who outnumbered them two to one. Clarkson's 
whole train was captured and Drew's regiment'^ deserted to 
the enemy. Colonel Watie's troops fought with great bravery 
but were finally forced to give way to superior numbers.^® 
An explanation of Drew's conduct, as well as Pike's, is to be 
found in a declaration of General Pike to the Five Tribes 
bearing the date of July 31, 1861. It states that their cause 
had been betrayed by the Confederacy, that they themselves, 
in violation of their treaties, had been taken out of their 
country and forced to serve beyond its boundaries, yet without 
their due measure of credit; that they had been despised and 
criticised by the white troops; that they had been kept in 
Arkansas while their own country was being exposed to hordes 
of jay hawkers, and that they were permitted to go to its 
defense only when the enemy's forces had reached such pro- 
portions that their own unaided strength was unable to with- 
stand it, yet no appreciable number of white troops had been 
sent to their assistance.-'^ In addition to these charges the 
supply of clothing and ammunition intended for the Indian 
troops had been stopped at Little Rock or Fort Smith and 
directed into other channels so that their soldiers were illy clad 
and poorly equipped. They remained unpaid from month to 
month causing unrest and dissatisfaction throughout Indian 
Territory. In addition to these causes the old factional jeal- 
ousies among the Cherokees had been aggravated by the greater 
appreciation shown by the Confederate Government for 

" With the exception of a small number of men under Capt. Pickens. 
" Official Records of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 12, p. 40. 
=* Ibid, Vol. 13, pp. 869-871. 



194 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

Colonel Watie's troops who had won the reputation of being 
better soldiers than Drew's full-bloods. 

After the engagement at Locust Grove, General Weer moved 
his army southward in two detachments and established head- 
quarters on the Grand River"^ about fourteen miles north of 
Fort Gibson. On July 14, Major Campbell entered the Confed- 
erate stronghold and the same day Captain Green arrived at 
Tahlequah. The following day the latter moved his command 
to Park Hill where he found about two hundred Cherokees 
awaiting an opportunity to join the Union. Colonel W. P. 
Ross and Major Thomas Pegg, who were at Mr. Ross's house 
debating whether they should respond to an order just received 
from Colonel Cooper to report for duty at Fort Davis, were 
arrested and sent to headquarters. 

The war clouds were now gathering thick and fast about 
the gray haired chief of the Cherokees. A few days before the 
arrival of the Union forces Colonel Cooper, in the name of 
President Davis, had commanded him to issue a proclamation 
calling on every able-bodied Cherokee man between the ages of 
eighteen and thirty-five to enlist in the Confederate military 
service. Following on the heels of this demand, and probably 
caused by it, the Pins rose in rebellion and compelled their 
chief, at the end of a halter, to declare for neutrality. Com- 
pliance with the demand meant death at the hands of his own 
people. To ignore it was to put himself at the mercy of Colonel 
Cooper. While he was thus hesitating between the devil and 
the deep sea, the question was settled for him by Captain Gaino, 
who arrested and placed him on parole, thereby adding to the 
complication and confusion. 

With the Confederate army in retreat, the Federal army 
in control and his own government in anarchy, he found him- 
self again face to face with a crisis which he had to meet 
quickly. The Confederacy had proved itself no more faithful 
to treaty relations than the Federal Government had done. 
Good faith no longer bound him. Expediency pointed to a 
renewal of relations with the north. Worn out and sick at 
heart over the hopelessness and confusion of the whole situation, 

^^ Across tlie river from Fort Gibson and near Muskogee. 



The Civil War 195 

he determined to return to his allegiance to the Union while 
there was yet a shadow of hope to save himself and his nation 
from utter anniliilation. When General Weer again ap- 
proached him on the subject, he yielded. As the Cherokee 
Nation was no longer a safe place for him he accepted the offer 
of a Union escort to Fort Gibson. With his family and what 
valuables'" could be loaded onto two ox wagons he left the 
country, making his way by Fort Scott, Kansas, to Philadel- 
phia. 

The success of the first Union invasion proved temporary. 
At this time a small, well organized force could have held the 
country easily, but inefficiency and lack of harmony among the 
commanding officers'^ led to mutiny and insubordination on 
the part of the soldiers. Delay resulted, giving the Confed- 
erate Indians under Cooper and Stand Watie time to join 
forces with white troops under General Raines. When these 
combined commands moved northward the Union army re- 
treated towards Kansas, leaving the Cherokee country in the 
hands of the Confederacy again. Tahlequah was recaptured. 
The victorious southern Cherokees held a convention and passed 
resolutions deposing Chief John Ross from office. Stand Watie, 
now a military hero, was elected to succeed him. 

Had the triumphant army been content to enjoy the fruits 
of its victory with moderation and mercy there would be one 
less series of disgraceful tales to tell of the Civil War. Unfor- 
tunately that was not the case. Summary vengeance was 
wreaked upon the families of loyal Cherokees, their long-stand- 
ing enemies. Women, children and old men, driven out of doors 
at midnight, were forced to seek protection by following the 
trail of the retreating army by the light of their burning 
homesteads. Beautiful Rose Cottage, after it had been sacked 
and denuded of whatever valuables could be carried away, was 
given to the flames. 

The success of the Confederate army was short-lived. In 
a few weeks the Federal forces, having rallied for a second 

^- Including all there was left in the National Treasury. 

"^ Colonel Weer was arrested by Colonel Solomen on the charge of 
drunkenness and foolhardiness in cutting off communications from the base 
of supplies. 



196 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

invasion of Indian Territory, marched back across the Kansas 
line, this time under command of Brigadier James G. Blunt, 
who defeated Cooper at Fort Wayne, and with the assistance 
of Colonel W. A. Phillips drove the Confederate army south of 
the Arkansas River. Fort Gibson was retaken and from now on 
to the end of the war remained the base of Union activity in 
Indian Territory, 

When the fortunes of war had again wrested the greater 
part of the Cherokee Nation from the hands of the Confederate 
forces and it was apparent that the Northern army had come 
to stay, the loyal Cherokees met in Council at Camp John 
Ross in February, 1863, Thomas Pegg acting as principal 
chief. They repudiated the alliance with the Confederate 
states, restored their allegiance to the Union, abolished slavery 
and involuntary servitude in the Cherokee Nation and passed 
a law confiscating the propert}^ of all Cherokee citizens who were 
enemies of the Union. Mr. Ross was reinstated as principal 
chief.-* 

The war dragged on in Indian Territory for two years 
longer. The Union army continued holding the country north 
of the Arkansas River and the Confederates, south. Raids 
matched counter-raids with no permanent gains to either side 
and much loss to both. The Confederate Indians took refuge 
on the Red River where they suffered as great hardships as had 
been endured by the refugees in Kansas at the beginning of the 
war. Sherman's path to the sea presented a scene of no greater 
destruction and desolation than Indian Territory after the 
Civil War. 

The loyal bands returned to their homes in the summer of 
1862, 1863 and again in 1864< and made crops only to have 
them destroyed by raiders from the south. The suffering was 
intense on both sides. Parched corn came to be a luxury 
during the winter months and wild fruits and berries sustained 
life in the summer. All the cattle and horses were appro- 
priated by the army, and with the able-bodied men in the service 
of one faction or the other, the women and children were left 
to shift for themselves. 

" Journal of the Council for 1863 in Manuscript, Tahlequah, Oklahoma. 



The Civil War 197 

Probably no part of the United or disunited States suffered 
such havoc as did the Indian Territory during this period. 
After the besom of war had swept, first north and then south, 
hardly a home was left standing. The country presented a 
tragic picture of blackened chimneys rising from the ruins of 
charred homesteads, of unfenced fields overgrown with weeds 
and brambles, and of a destitute population, reduced to the 
very verge of despondency. Thus did the Red Man help pay 
the price of freedom for the Black. 



CHAPTER XXI 

Reconstruction of the Cherokee Nation 

The fugitive chief of the Cherokees, arriving at Philadelphia 
in the early winter of 1863, had first to seek a suitable abiding 
place for his family. This was found in an old colonial house 
on the south side of Washington square, inherited by Mrs. Ross.^ 
Then hastening to Washington he at once began trying to set 
himself and his nation right with the United States Govern- 
ment. In spite of intriguing enemies, who, for reasons of their 
own, did not wish to see the Cherokee reinstated, he secured an 
interview with the President and stated his case. He claimed 
that, deserted by their natural protector, his nation had been 
compelled to seek an alliance with the Confederacy. As soon 
as the Federal troops came to their rescue the main body of the 
Cherokees had gladly returned to their allegiance. He believed 
that they were justified in the course they had pursued because 
they had been forced into it by the exigencies of the moment.^ 
Notwithstanding the fact that he had thrown the whole weight 
of his influence and the strength of his resources into the 
balance of the Confederacy for a few months, his heart, he 
naively assured the President, had always been in the Union. 
As a matter of fact his heart had never been in the Union nor 
in the Confederacy. It had never gone beyond the boundaries 
of the Indian Territory, scarcely beyond those of the Cherokee 
Nation. He had joined the Confederacy because he saw de- 
struction ahead if he did not. He had tried to make the best 
of a bad situation. Likewise, his loyalty to the Union was 
actuated purely by motives of self-preservation. Why should 
it have been otherwise? Reviewing the history of the last thirty 
years one fails to find a reason except in the most abstract 
ethics. 

The point of view and logic of the defense were not lost 

upon Lincoln. With his great breadth of mind and depth of 

sympathy he could not fail to appreciate, in a measure, the 

position of the Indian in the war. He was convinced that the 

' Manuscript in the collection of L. C. Ross, Tahlequah, Oklahoma. 

' Ross to Lincoln, January, 1863. Ibid. 



Reconstruction of the Cherokee Nation 199 

chief had some show of justice on his side and promised a 
thorough examination of the case as soon as circumstances 
would permit/^ With the assurance that his nation wouhl be 
fairly dealt with in due time, Mr. Ross was compelled to content 
himself for the present. 

The promised investigation did not materialize, however, 
and the end of the war found the Cherokees on a precarious 
footing at Washington. If they had cherished any hope of 
escaping the rigors of reconstruction they were soon to be 
undeceived. Politicians were not slow to see the White Man's 
opportunity in the Red Man's extremity. It was a rare chance 
of securing valuable lands for nothing and one not to be 
neglected. One of the first statements of this policy is to be 
found in the early summer of 1864 in a letter of Colonel W. A. 
Phillips, then Commandant at Fort Gibson. The occasion 
was a convention held by the Choctaws, at New Hope the preced- 
ing March, with a view to profiting by the President's Amnesty 
Proclamation. They had appointed a provisional governor* 
for their nation and sent a delegate to Washington. Colonel 
Phillips, upon hearing of this, forwarded a protest to the 
National Capital stating that the tribe was still in a state of 
rebellion and advising that no terms be made until a more 
secure basis had been reached. The illuminating suggestion 
was added, that the situation furnished a good excuse for reduc- 
ing the great Indian domains to mere reserves, and for opening 
up land for settlement, an opportunity which the country could 
not afford to neglect.^ 

A word to the wise was sufficient. The next year found the 
policy suggested by Colonel Phillips fairly well outlined by the 
Indian Department. Presently rumors reached Indian Terri- 
tory that the treaty rights of the Indians were considered 
abrogated and in the renewal of friendly relations the tribes 
would be completely at the mercy of the United States in 
consequence of their part in the rebellion. The people of the 

^ Correspondence between Lincoln and Ross, in Ross Manuscripts. 
* Thomas Edwards. 

' Abel, A. H., The Indians in the Civil War, American Historical Review, 
Vol. 15, p. 295. 



200 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

Five Tribes, having much to lose in such a case, were particu- 
larly uneasy and desirous of renewing their treaty relations 
on the best terms obtainable. As a first step towards this end 
a grand council of all the Southern Indians was called to meet 
at Camp Napolian, Chattahomha, May 24, 1865. Represen- 
tatives of fifteen tribes are said to have been present.*^ A solemn 
league of peace and friendship was entered into, resolutions 
were drawn up expressing their purpose and wishes and dele- 
gates, representing each of the tribes, were appointed to go to 
Washington for the purpose of conferring with the Federal 
Government on the subject of new treaties. Hearing of this 
action of the Indians and thinking it wiser to arrange treaties 
with them in their own country, the President appointed a com- 
mission to meet their representative at some place in the Indian 
Territory. 

The Choctaws again took the initiative. Their chief, Peter 
Pytchlyn, a conservative, well educated man, who had never 
been a bitter partisan in the war,"^ sent out a call for a general 
conference with the commissioners to be held at Armstrong 
Academy, September 1. His proclamation, after describing 
the existing conditions and urging all to send representatives 
to the conference, closes with the following significant sentences : 
"It therefore becomes us as a brave people to forget and lay 
aside our prejudices and prove ourselves equal to the occasion. 
Let reason obtain, now that the sway of passion has passed, and 
let us meet in council, with a proper spirit, to renew our former 
relations with the United States government."^ 

The Grand Council which was convened at Fort Smith, 
instead of at Armstrong Academy, to suit the convenience of 
the commissioners, proved to be a notable one indeed. The 
Federal Government was represented by Elijah Sells, Super- 
intendent of the Southern Indians, Thomas Wister, a prominent 
Quaker of Pennsylvania, Major General W. S. Harvey of the 
United States Army, Colonel Ely S. Parker, an educated Iro- 

•Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Seminoles, Caddoes, Chey- 
ennes, Araphaoes, Osages, Kiawas, Lepans, Northern Osages and Ana- 
dockies. Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1865, p. 295. 

' Abbot, History and Civics of Oklahoma, p. 127. 

* Thoburn and Holcomb, History of Oklahoma, p. 100. 



Reconstruction of the Cherokee Nation 201 

quois Indian who had served as a member of General Grant's 
staff during the war, and D. N. Cooley, president of the com- 
mission. Milton W. Reynolds, who was present as a represen- 
tative of the New York Tribune, declared that the delegates of 
the Indian tribes were no less brilliant and conspicuous than 
the representatives of the Federal Government, but if the truth 
were told, so far as power of expression, knowledge of Indian 
treaties and real oratory were concerned, they had a decided 
advantage.^ Governor Colbert of the Chickasaws, Colonel 
Pytchlyn of the Choctaws and Chief Ross of the Cherokees were 
regarded as men of ablity, education and good breeding where- 
ever they were known. But the most gifted and powerful in 
eloquence of all the Indian representatives was Colonel E. C. 
Boudinot, son of Elias Boudinot^" and nephew of Stand Watie, 
just out of the Confederate Congress at Richmond where he 
had served as a delegate of the Southern Cherokees. With his 
impassioned eloquence and distinguished appearance he was one 
of the most pronounced figures in the convention. ^^ There was 
present also a large delegation from Kansas, composed of law- 
yers and lobbyists, who came for the purpose of insisting that 
room be made in Indian Territory for the Indians in Kansas 
whose reservations covered some of the best lands in the south- 
ern part of the state. In addition to all these was a multitude 
of men, women and children from the various tribes. Their pic- 
turesque camps on the outskirts »of the town must have inter- 
ested even if their pathetic poverty failed to touch the sym- 
pathy of the most hardened war veteran present. 

The council was called to order on September 8.^^ After 
the blessings of the Great Spirit had been invoked upon the 
deliberations in an earnest prayer by Reverend Lewis Downing, 
second chief of the Cherokee Nation, the objects of the meeting 
were stated by the chairman, Commissioner Cooley, who in- 

* Rock, Marion T., Illustrated History of Oklahoma, pp. 8-9. Mr. 
Reynolds wrote a reminiscence of the meeting several years after it took 
place. 

*•> Killed at Park Hill, 1839. 

" Rock, Illustrated History of Oklahoma, p. 9. 

"The proceedings of the Conference are given in full in the Report of 
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1865, pp. 299-336. 



202 John Ross and the Chekokee Indians 

formed the Indians that since most of them had violated their 
treaty obligations to the United States by entering into diplo- 
matic relations with the Confederacy they had forfeited all 
annuities and interests in lands in Indian Territory. However, 
the long-suffering President was willing to hear his erring 
children in extenuation of their great crime, and to make treaties 
with such nations as were willing to be at peace among them- 
selves and with the United States. There were certain general 
terms on which their relations might be restored : the opposing 
factions of each tribe must enter into a treaty of amity and 
peace among themselves, between each other as tribes, and with 
the United States ; the tribes settled in the Indian country 
should bind themselves, at the call of the United States authori- 
ties, to assist in keeping peace among the wild tribes of the 
plains; slavery should be abolished and measures taken to 
incorporate the slaves into the several tribes on an equal footing 
with the original members, or they should otherwise suitably 
provide for them; slavery or involuntary servitude should 
never exist in any tribe or nation except in the punishment 
of crime; a part of the lands hitherto owned and occupied by 
the Indians must be set apart for the friendly Indians in 
Kansas and elsewhere on such terms as might be agreed upon, 
or fixed by the government.^^ 

Full delegations from some of the tribes had not yet arrived 
but the next few days were taken up by those present in 
submitting credentials, discussing the limitations placed upon 
them by their instructions and in explaining how and why they 
had been induced to sign treaties with the Confederate Govern- 
ment. 

According to the report of the chairman of the Council one 
of the most interesting of these explanations was a paper from 
the loyal Cherokees pleading "not guilty" to the charge of 
being rebels in consequence of the treaty concluded with the 
southern states. This brought forth a lengthy reply from 
Commissioner Cooley in which he reviewed the history of the 
Cherokees in the Civil War, showing that they had been guilty 
of open defection from the Union, and fixing the blame upon a 

^Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1865, p. 299. 



Recokstructiox of the Cherokee Nation 203 

few bad men, chief of whom was John Ross. That the majority 
of the nation had been, and still were, lo3'al at heart he admitted. 
If they wished to remove the stigma and the disability placed 
upon them by a few wicked renegades the}^ would be given an 
opportunity to do so by submitting to the terms proposed by 
the United States. All forfeitures and penalties against those 
who had not voluntarily aided the enemy would be remitted, 
even if they were found necessary in other cases. 

After four days of preliminary discussion by delegations 
from several different tribes, a draft of a preliminary treaty 
based upon the principles contained in the opening remarks 
of the commissioner was presented to the convention. The 
loyal Cherokees expressed their willingness to sign the agree- 
ment if they did not acknowledge that they had forfeited their 
rights and annuities as set forth in the preamble, but their 
signatures must be made under the statement that "we, the 
loyal delegation, acknowledge the execution of the treaty of 
October 7, 1861, but we solemnly declare that the execution was 
procured by the coercion of the rebel army.'"* The Southern 
Cherokees objected to the treaty on the ground that it would be 
neither for the benefit of the emancipated negro, nor for that 
of the Indian, to incorporate the former into the tribe on an 
equal footing with its original members. They also objected 
to consolidating all the tribes of Indian Territory under one 
government because of the many incongruous and irreconcilable 
members which no power could bring into a semblance of as- 
similation. They further asked that there might be an equit- 
able division of their country by the United States, as they be- 
lieved that there was no way of restoring peace and harmony 
between the still warring factions. 

Mr. Ross was still in the east when plans for the council 
were arranged. Realizing how desirable it was for him to 
be on hand to defend himself and his nation, he set out for the 
west as soon as he was able. The Cherokee National Council 
was in session when he reached Tahlequah the first of Sep- 
tember, and he lingered a few days before proceeding to Fort 
Smith. It was not until the thirteenth that he arrived at the 

" Ibid, p. 336. 



204 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

camp of his delegation on the other side of the river from the 
place of meeting. Fatigued from the long and wearisome jour- 
ney the aged chief did not show himself at the council grounds 
until the afternoon of the following day and after the pre- 
liminary treaty had been submitted. 

The meeting had been in session several days and the fac- 
tional diflterences between the loyal and the Southern Cherokees 
had been given time to show themselves. Added to the ancient 
feuds, which still rankled, was the confiscation act passed by 
the loyal Council of 1863, which prevented the southern part 
of the tribe, numbering about six thousand, from returning 
home. They were at this time living in great destitution upon 
the Red River and their representatives at Fort Smith were 
anxious to secure assurance from the loyal delegation that the 
law would be repealed and their people reinstated in their 
homes. This promise could not be secured, the delegation 
claiming that they did not have the power to bind their Council 
to any policy of action. Considerable disappointment and 
irritation naturally resulted, and as usual, Mr, Ross was con- 
veniently made the scapegoat by the commissioners, who had 
made up their minds before his arrival to refuse to recognize 
his official position. 

To the surprise of the Cherokee delegation, therefore, at 
the first session which Chief Ross attended Commissioner Cooley 
read an announcement to the assembled Indians stating that 
the commissioners refused, in any way or manner, to recognize 
Mr. Ross as chief of the Cherokees, giving as their reason that 
he was considered by them an enemy to the United States, that 
he was disposed to breed discord among his own people and be- 
tween them and the United States ; that he couilseled the Creeks 
against signing the treaty then under consideration ; and finally 
that he did not represent the will and the wishes of the loyal 
Cherokees. ^^ 

If they expected the Indians to meekly acquiesce in this 
high-handed policy they did not appreciate the character of 
the men with whom they were dealing. A people naturally so 

^ The Cherokee Question, p. 4. Report of Commissioner of Indian 
A fairs, 1865, p. 306; Ibid, p. 308. 



Reconstruction of the Cherokee Nation 205 

tenacious of their right to life and liberty could not well have 
been expected to yield up their autonomy at the drop of the 
hat after all the years of struggle to maintain it, nor would 
they permit such a stigma to rest upon a man who had served 
them so faithfully and so long. A solemn protest was promptly 
filed by a committee from the delegation of loyal Cherokees in 
which they claimed, putting it mildly, that the act of the com- 
missioners was based on erroneous information ; that Mr. Ross 
was not the pretended chief of the Cherokee Nation but the 
principal chief in law and fact, having been duly elected to 
that position by the qualified voters, in accordance with the ' 
provisions of the constitution; that for the past three years 
he had been the authorized delegate to Washington, and the 
recognized head of the Cherokee Nation. There had been no 
action on his part during this time which impugned his loyalty 
to the United States or his fidelity to the Cherokee Nation. As 
to his course in the Civil War he had remained loyal long after 
the tribes and states in his vicinity had abjured their allegiance 
to the Union and after all protection had been withdrawn by 
the United States, yielding to the Confederacy only when fur- 
ther resistance threatened the entire destruction of his people. 
They denied that he had used his influence since his arrival at 
the Council to prevent the Cherokees or the Creeks from signing 
the proposed treaty. The discussions following, in which E. C. 
Boudinot took a brilliant part, served only to widen the breach 
between the two factions, and between the loyal Cherokees and 
the commissioners. The restoration of friendly relations be- 
tween them appeared yet a long way off, and all hope of a 
treaty agreement at this time was given up. 

The success of the Fort Smith Council from the point of 
view of all concerned was only partial, due to the fact that the 
terms offered by the United States were not altogether accep- 
table to the Indians, and partly to the fact that several of the 
delegations, including the Cherokees, had not been notified that 
new treaties with them were desired by the government, and they 
had therefore not been properly authorized to make treaties 
relinquishing any of their lands for the use of friendly tribes 
in Kansas. The Cherokees refused to enter into any negotiation 



206 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

for such a treaty until their Council should appoint a commis- 
sion with the proper authority for the purpose/*' The meeting 
therefore came to an end with nothing definite accomplished, 
so far as the Cherokees were concerned, except a preliminary 
treaty of peace and amity as a basis for future action, and an 
agreement to send a delegation with proper authority to treat 
at Washington, probably the next December, 

The winter of 1866 was a dreary one indeed for the whole 
tribe. The condition of those on the Red River could not be 
expected to improve as long as they remained there. Those 
who returned to their desolate nation fared little better. There 
were few churches, no schools, no cultivated fields, except here 
and there a little corn patch in some secluded place cultivated 
by women and children and the old men. The mills had been 
destroyed so that the primitive mortar and pestle had to be 
depended upon for what little meal was used. Fortunate in- 
deed were those who had. all the boiled corn or hominy they 
wanted. Flour at forty dollars a barrel was prohibitive. Even 
salt, which before the war had been manufactured in consider- 
able quantities on the Grand Saline, was at a premium, the salt 
works, which had been in use for over thirty years, having 
gone the way of other improvements. Hoes, plows, axes, all 
implements so necessary to an agricultural community, were 
sold at prohibitive rates, and the necessary price of the com- 
monest necessities was very hard to get. It was high time 
something should be done to restore to the people their national 
pride and to furnish them an incentive, as well as the means, 
for work. 

This was plainly no time for haggling and hair-splitting. 
Yet when the delegations met in Washington at the beginning 
of the year their early discussions gave little promise of prompt 
adjustment of the difficulties by means of a treaty. Both sides 
had engaged strong legal counsel and the discussions were ably 
conducted. Draft after draft of a treaty was drawn up, only 
to be rejected by one or both parties. The Southern Cherokees, 
feeling that it would be unsafe to return home with the Ross 
party in full possession of the government and the confisca- 

^'' The Cherokee Question, p. 3. 



Reconstruction of the Cherokee Nation 207 

tion laws in force, demanded as the only hope for their peace 
and well-being a division of the Cherokee lands and annuities 
in proportion to the numbers of each party/^ A prompt pro- 
test was filed by the National party which had always opposed 
any scheme which threatened their national integrity. They 
suggested instead that one district^ ^ of the nation be set 
aside for two years for the sole occupation of the Southern 
party, pending a final settlement of the controversy. Of course 
this plan was wholly unacceptable to the opposition because of 
the smallness of the district and for other very good reasons. 
Weeks and months of bickering and wire-pulling followed, 
each party suspicious of the other, and both of the Federal 
Government, which, determined to secure land upon which to 
colonize Indian tribes in Kansas, was not blind to its oppor- 
tunity of driving a keen bargain at the expense of the dis- 
cordant factions. Despairing of arranging terms with the 
loyal Cherokees, the commissioners at last determined to treat 
with the Southern party. Finally on June 19, a treaty was 
concluded with them providing that a certain part of the 
Cherokee Nation should be set apart for their exclusive use. 
They in turn agreed to sell to the United States a part of 
the national domain. The treaty was not laid before the Senate 
but used as a sort of moral suasion on the Nationals, who, 
after another month of discussion, themselves came to terms 
and signed a treaty on July 19. At best this treaty was a 
three-cornered compromise which pleased nobody, but was rec- 
ognized by all as the best that could be obtained under the cir- 
cumstances. The Federal Government, as usual, came out the 
greatest gainer. The treaty provided for the repudiation of 
the alliance with the Confederacy ; declared amnesty for all past 
offenses ; repealed the confiscation laws ; allowed 160 acres of 
land to every f reedman ; agreed to the establishment of a 
United States Court in the Indian Territory, and the settle- 
ment of friendly Indians on unoccupied lands of the Cherokees. 
These, with some articles of minor importance, constituted the 
treaty of 1866.'" 

"Report of Commissioner of IndiMn Affairs, 1866, p. 67. 

'* Canadian district. 

" 14 U. 8. Statutes at Large, p. 799. 



208 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

Chief Ross, though much broken in health, headed his dele- 
gation as he had done for almost forty years. Before the final 
draft of the treaty was arranged he became too ill to attend 
the deliberations of the delegation. Realizing that his end 
was near, the commissioners, at the suggestion of the Secretary 
of the Interior, repealed their decree of the previous year de- 
posing him from the chieftainship of the Cherokees on the 
ground that the reason which rendered that action necessary 
no longer existed. Just at sunset on August first, he quietly 
and peacefully passed away. 

When news of his death reached the Cherokee Nation, there 
was sincere mourning among a large portion of his people, both 
full-bloods and the mixed element who realized that they had 
lost in their venerable chief a warm friend and an able champion. 
By act of the National Council, his body was taken to Park Hill 
and interred with fitting ceremony in the cemetery near his 
old home. When the National Council convened in October it 
passed a resolution and placed upon the records a memorial in 
which his service to his people and their love and confidence 
toward him were ably expressed. It claims justly that his long 
career, passed in the constant service of his people, "furnishes 
an instance of confidence on their part and fidelity on his 
which had never been surpassed in history. ""° 

That there is another side to Mr. Ross's reputation, those 
who have followed this story of his life need not be reminded. 
By his enemies he was regarded in a very different light from 
that in which he appeared to his friends. Fond of place and 
power, ambitious for his own immediate family, dishonest in 
the use of the Cherokee national funds, severe and partial in 
the administration of justice, crafty and unscrupulous, trim- 
ming his sails to every political breeze, — these are some of the 
charges brought against him. 

Most of these charges were made by prejudiced persons not 
competent to judge the man fairly, and are therefore not to 
be considered seriously. Some of them are perhaps true in a 
sense. In the light of later events it is evident that he made 

""Cherokee National Mss. Records, Tahlequah, Oklahoma. 



Reconstruction of the Cherokee Nation 209 

mistakes in his policy of government. Yet they were not mis- 
takes of a small man, but of a great one. If he erred it was 
on the side of zeal for a cause which he thought to be right. 
That he was a political trimmer is an accusation that needs 
stronger proof than has yet been brought to light, while the 
accusation itself can be easily accounted for without discredit 
to Mr. Ross. To understand him it must not be forgotten that 
he was first, last and always a Cherokee Indian, a citizen of the 
Cherokee Nation which was to him a sovereign, independent 
nation. His consuming desire and purpose were to serve and 
protect to the best of his ability this nation at whose head he 
stood so proudly and staunchly for many years. To him its 
welfare and its claims were paramount. He had no other 
patriotism, a fact which can be understood and appreciated 
fully, perhaps, only by those who have lived under conditions 
similar to those under which he lived and have possessed senti- 
ments and attachments akin to his. 

The interests of the full-blood Indians were his first care. 
Tlie Cherokees have since had chiefs who were patriotic and 
incorruptible, men of whom any group of people might justly 
be proud. But they have never had a chief who so guarded the 
interests of the helpless and gave them preference over the 
stronger mixed-blood population. And who has needed a strong 
and sincere friend more than the full-blood.? The Cherokees 
can boast of better educated men than John Ross, more eloquent 
orators, men of greater literary skill, of higher legal talent. 
But they have yet to produce a statesman of greater all-round 
ability, of more strength of character, of greater devotion to 
his tribe than this Scotch Cherokee Christian gentleman whose 
long dramatic career came to a close well-nigh half a century 
ago, marking the end of a most important period of Cherokee 
history. 



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I. SOURCES 

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Bibliography '^ 211 

Missionary Herald, Ayer Collection, Newberry Library, Chicago, 

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212 John Ross and the Cherokee Indians 

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